Caregiving Role and Psychosocial and Individual Factors: A Systematic Review.

Elena Cejalvo,Marivel Teresa Aguirre-Morales,Manuel Martí-Vilar,César Merino-Soto

doi:10.3390/healthcare9121690

Elena Cejalvo, Marivel Teresa Aguirre-Morales + Show 2 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3390/healthcare9121690

Copy DOI

Abstract

Taking care of a person with a physical disability can become a challenge for caregivers as they must combine the task of caring with their personal and daily needs. The aim of this study was to assess the impact that taking care of a person who needs support has on caregivers and to analyze certain characteristics they present, such as self-esteem and resilience. To that end, a bibliographic review was carried out from 1985, when the first article of taking care of a person who needs support was published, to 2020 (inclusive), in the databases of Web of Science (WoS), Scopus, Pubmed, Eric, Psycinfo, and Embase. The search yielded a total of (n = 37) articles subject to review, following the guidelines established in the PRISMA declaration. The results show that caregiving was highly overburdening and negatively affected the physical condition and the psychological and mental states of caregivers. In addition, certain psychological characteristics present in caregivers such as having high self-esteem and being resilient were found to act as protective factors against the caregiving burden.

Highlights

This work is a systematic review of the scientific literature focused on the understanding of three aspects: (1) the impact that the performance of the role of caregiver generates on caregivers, (2) an analysis of certain characteristics of caregivers such as self-esteem and resilience, and (3) the identification of protective factors in the caregiver–person receiving care relationship, which can mitigate the negative effects associated with care
This does not indicate the absolute absence of quality assessment of the studies because some assessment of this quality was partially guaranteed by the selection of the databases (e.g., Web of Science (WoS) and Scopus), whose selective processes are high for choosing the journals receiving research articles
The term psychological characteristics* suggests a wide range of psychological attributes linked to caregivers; there are many other attributes that could not be included in this review and, that are part of the methodological limitations of the current work

Summary

Introduction

Disability as a term was initially approached from three different perspectives: the dispensation model, the rehabilitative medical model, and the social model. The first model considered that disability had its origin in religious causes. The medical model considered disability as a problem caused by a health condition that prevented the individual from coping with the demands of life in society. The person needed to be treated in order to be able to cope with these demands [2]. The social model considered that the causes of disability were neither religious nor scientific in nature, but were largely social in nature, assuming people with disabilities should, and were able to, contribute and participate in society to the same extent as other people [3]

Objectives

Methods

Results

Discussion

Conclusion