Care Tasks in the Stress Process for Family Caregivers in Urban China.

OBJECTIVES

To explore the role of care tasks in the caregiving stress process, this study tested the relationships between distinct care tasks, primary stressors, caregiver burden, and depressive symptoms among caregivers.

METHODS

The data were collected from a sample of 754 caregivers who provided care for frail, elderly family members in Shanghai, China. Path analysis was conducted to identify the relationships between the three types of care tasks (monetary support, physical care and emotional care), the caregivers' background, primary stressors, caregiver burden, and depressive symptoms.

RESULTS

The results show distinct paths through the three types of care tasks in the stress process. Caregivers with higher incomes were more likely to provide monetary support to their care recipients. Being a female caregiver and having greater primary stressors were associated with more involvement in physical care, which predicted higher levels of caregiver burden and further exacerbated depression. The cognitive impairment of care recipients was associated with greater emotional care, with the caregivers who provided more emotional care reporting higher levels of caregiver burden but lower levels of depression.

CONCLUSIONS

This study underscores the importance of considering different types of care tasks to properly understand caregiving stress across cultures and societies.

CLINICAL IMPLICATIONS

This study highlights the need for interventions to alleviate the caregiving stress by helping family caregivers understand the importance of emotional care, training them to appropriately meet the psychological and social needs of their care recipients and providing financial support for caregivers with lower income to purchase respite care services.