Hooker K, Monahan D J, Bowman S R, Frazier L D, Shifren K
Syracuse University, USA.
J Gerontol B Psychol Sci Soc Sci. 1998 Mar;53(2):P73-85. doi: 10.1093/geronb/53b.2.p73.
The purpose of this study were to examine the influence of personality on mental and physical health of spouse caregivers and to determine whether there were differences in such influences depending on disease context. The disease contexts compared were Alzheimer's disease (AD) and Parkinson's disease (PD; with no coexisting dementia)--both chronic, degenerative diseases of later life. It was predicted that personality would be related to mental and physical health, directly and indirectly, and that AD caregivers would have higher levels of perceived stress and worse mental and physical health outcomes. Participants in the study were 175 caregivers (88 AD; 87 PD) living at home with their ill spouses. The data provided an excellent fit to the hypothesized model of the relationships between personality, disease group, social support, perceived stress, and mental and physical health. Seventy-eight percent of the variance in mental health was accounted for and 35% of the variance in physical health was explained. Personality had significant direct and indirect effects on mental health and significant indirect effects on physical health. As predicted, AD caregivers had significantly worse mental health than PD caregivers; however, AD caregivers had better physical health than PD caregivers, controlling for other variables in the model. These results are discussed in relation to the existing caregiving and behavioral medicine literature. Future research should include different domains of personality--states and longer term self-regulatory processes in addition to traits--to advance models of caregiving processes further.
本研究的目的是考察人格对配偶照顾者身心健康的影响，并确定这种影响是否因疾病背景而异。所比较的疾病背景为阿尔茨海默病（AD）和帕金森病（PD；无并存痴呆症）——均为晚年慢性退行性疾病。研究预测，人格将直接或间接地与身心健康相关，且AD照顾者会有更高水平的感知压力以及更差的身心健康结果。该研究的参与者为175名与患病配偶同住的照顾者（88名AD照顾者；87名PD照顾者）。数据与人格、疾病组、社会支持、感知压力以及身心健康之间关系的假设模型高度拟合。心理健康方面78%的方差得到了解释，身体健康方面35%的方差得到了解释。人格对心理健康有显著的直接和间接影响，对身体健康有显著的间接影响。如预测的那样，AD照顾者的心理健康状况显著差于PD照顾者；然而，在控制模型中的其他变量后，AD照顾者的身体健康状况优于PD照顾者。将结合现有的照顾和行为医学文献对这些结果进行讨论。未来的研究应纳入人格的不同领域——除特质外还包括状态和更长期的自我调节过程——以进一步推进照顾过程模型。
