Dependent care, caregiver burden, hardiness, and self-care agency of caregivers.

This is a partial replication of a descriptive correlation study that examined the relationship between dependent care, caregiver burden, health-related hardiness, and self-care agency of caregivers. Data from this replication were compared with those of the previously reported study. Data were collected from a home health agency and a radiation-oncology unit. A moderate significant negative correlation was found between objective burden and dependent care. Moderate significant positive correlations were found between self-care agency scores and the commitment/challenge and control subscales of health-related hardiness scores. The major difference between this study and the previous one was in the level of subjective burden. Even though caregivers reported greater levels of subjective burden, the correlation with self-care agency and hardiness was nonexistent. The small subsample of male caregivers (n = 14) prevented a statistical comparison with the previous data; however, in the pooled sample previous findings were supported.