Ethnicity, familism and willingness to care: important influences on caregiver mood?

OBJECTIVE

Few studies have to date examined the effects of ethnicity on caregiver motivations, coping responses and mood. This theoretically informed study uses the socio-cultural model of stress and coping to explore these relationships amongst a White-British and British South-Asian caregiver sample.

METHOD

A total of 235 primary family caregivers were recruited for a cross-sectional questionnaire survey; of which 162 were White-British and 73 were British South-Asian.

RESULTS

British South-Asian caregivers differed from White-British caregivers on several variables within the stress-coping framework. British South-Asian caregivers were younger, had significantly higher levels of familism, used significantly more behavioural disengagement and religious coping and reported having significantly less support than White-British caregivers. White-British caregivers were more likely to make use of substances and humour as coping methods, and also in these caregivers, familism was significantly related to caregiver depression. Whilst levels of willingness to care did not differ between the two caregiver groups, opposing relationships were seen in the association between willingness to care and caregiver anxiety. Regression analyses found that self-blame explained a significant proportion of variance in South-Asian anxiety and depression, whereas depression amongst White-British caregivers was associated with high use of substances, low use of humour and low mean satisfaction with support.

CONCLUSION

These findings offer support to the socio-cultural model of stress and coping in that coping is associated with two outcomes (anxiety and depression), but motivational factors are also highlighted which have additional implications for the development of culturally specific interventions aimed at reducing caregiver distress.