Correlates of subjective burden among adult sons and daughters caring for aged parents

Abstract

This article describes a study of the correlates of subjective burden within a sample of 121 adult daughters and 50 adult sons, each of whom was identified as providing care to an older parent. Feelings of burden, the key dependent variable in the study, was measured using the Caregiver Burden Scale. Independent variables included (a) sociodemographic characteristics of the caregiver, (b) internal or cognitive coping strategies, (c) external coping strategies involving five different sources of social support, (d) social support measured in terms of how many assist in caregiving, (e) degree of caregiving involvement, (f) the extent to which adult children planned or prepared for the time when parents would need care, and (g) both quantitative and qualitative aspects of the adult child-elderly parent relationship. Daughters reported higher levels of burden than did sons. Most measures of social support, particularly frequency measures, were not correlated with feelings of burden, nor for the most part were attempts to plan and prepare for caregiving. Only Involvement in caregiving tasks and selected coping strategies were predictive of subjective burden. Important differences according to caregivers' gender were noted with regard to both caregiving tasks and to the coping strategies that were related to burden.