Yeung Nelson C Y, Zhang Yiwei, Ji Lili, Lu Guohua, Lu Qian
The Jockey Club School of Public Health and Primary Care, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, Hong Kong.
Department of Medical Nursing, Weifang Medical University, Weifang, China.
Eur J Cancer Care (Engl). 2018 Sep;27(5):e12872. doi: 10.1111/ecc.12872. Epub 2018 Jun 29.
Caregiver guilt (i.e., feeling of inadequacy in providing care to patients) is commonly experienced and studied among husbands of breast cancer survivors in Western countries. However, little is known about the psychosocial correlates of caregiver guilt in their Chinese counterparts. A total of 176 husbands of Chinese breast cancer survivors completed a cross-sectional survey in Weifang, Shandong province, China. As expected, hierarchical regression results showed that higher caregiving burden was associated with higher levels of caregiver guilt. However, for those who had stronger endorsement of the "Masculinity strength" gender-role norm, higher seeking social support from spouse was associated with higher guilt; for those with higher levels of marital satisfaction, higher protective buffering (i.e., hiding of concerns and negative emotions to protect others) was associated with lower caregiver guilt. Western assumptions on the harm of protective buffering and the benefits of support seeking as well as related supportive evidence among Western populations do not directly apply to the Chinese culture, which should be brought awareness to research and practice. Practitioners should consider the cultural background of the caregivers and should not simply encourage support seeking and discourage protective buffering.
照顾者内疚感（即在为患者提供护理时感到自己能力不足）在西方国家乳腺癌幸存者的丈夫中普遍存在且受到研究。然而，对于中国乳腺癌幸存者丈夫中照顾者内疚感的心理社会相关因素却知之甚少。在中国山东省潍坊市，共有176名中国乳腺癌幸存者的丈夫完成了一项横断面调查。正如预期的那样，层次回归结果显示，更高的照顾负担与更高水平的照顾者内疚感相关。然而，对于那些对“男性力量”性别角色规范认同更强的人，从配偶那里寻求更多社会支持与更高的内疚感相关；对于婚姻满意度较高的人，更高程度的保护性缓冲（即为保护他人而隐藏担忧和负面情绪）与较低的照顾者内疚感相关。西方关于保护性缓冲的危害、寻求支持的益处以及西方人群中的相关支持证据的假设并不直接适用于中国文化，这一点在研究和实践中应引起重视。从业者应考虑照顾者的文化背景，而不应简单地鼓励寻求支持并抑制保护性缓冲。
