School of Psychology, Bangor University, Bangor, UK.
Int J Geriatr Psychiatry. 2012 Nov;27(11):1195-202. doi: 10.1002/gps.3773. Epub 2012 Feb 15.
Informal dementia caregiving has traditionally been perceived as an extremely stressful process; however, more recent research has started to focus on the positive aspects of providing care. Studies indicate that caregivers who derive something positive out of caregiving have better well-being. However, there has been little exploration of the factors linked to caregivers identifying positive aspects of providing care. The aim of the current study was to explore the predictors of finding meaning in caregiving.
This was a cross-sectional questionnaire study in which the respondents were 447 caregivers of people with dementia who were in receipt of a specialist nursing service. The questionnaire contained measures of meaning, relationship quality, caregivers' motivations to provide care, role captivity and caregiving competence.
Correlational analyses showed that higher meaning was associated with being a spousal caregiver, providing greater hours of care, higher religiosity, a better pre-caregiving and current relationship quality, higher competence, lower role captivity, higher intrinsic motivations and higher extrinsic motivations. Hierarchical regression analyses indicated that variance in finding meaning was significantly predicted by high religiosity, high competence, high intrinsic motivations and low role captivity.
From these findings, it is recommended that interventions should help caregivers focus on positive aspects of providing care and enhance their feelings of competence.
传统上，非正式的痴呆症护理被认为是一个极其有压力的过程；然而，最近的研究开始关注提供护理的积极方面。研究表明，从护理中获得积极体验的护理人员的幸福感更好。然而，对于与护理人员识别护理积极方面相关的因素的探索还很少。本研究的目的是探讨寻找护理意义的预测因素。
这是一项横断面问卷调查研究，调查对象为接受专科护理服务的 447 名痴呆症患者的护理人员。问卷包含意义、关系质量、护理人员提供护理的动机、角色束缚和护理能力的衡量标准。
相关分析表明，更高的意义与配偶护理人员、提供更多的护理时间、更高的宗教信仰、更好的护理前和当前的关系质量、更高的能力、更低的角色束缚、更高的内在动机和更高的外在动机有关。层次回归分析表明，宗教信仰高、能力高、内在动机高和角色束缚低显著预测了寻找意义的差异。
根据这些发现，建议干预措施应帮助护理人员关注提供护理的积极方面，并增强他们的能力感。
