Interpersonal relationship and psychological well-being of family caregivers for elderly persons

Abstract

This paper considers the impact of the quality of interpersonal relationships on psychological well-being of family caregivers for elderly persons. First, the paper reviewed the studies on the measures for care-giving burden and argued that the burden and depression of the caregivers were generally associated with the perception of negative family relationship. Second, the paper considered the importance of social support on the psychological well-being and argued that the good quality of interpersonal relationship contributed to psychological well-being of caregivers by increasing the opportunities to obtain social support. Third, the paper reviewed the studies that suggest the negative effect of intimate family relationship on psychological well-being of caregivers. These studies mostly argued that the intimate relationship increased the commitment to family caregiving and consequently, family caregivers were likely to hesitate to utilize various professional services for caregiving. Forth, the paper pointed out that social support may have negative impact on the recipients' psychological well-being, such as arousing guilt feeling and decreasing self-esteem. Finally, it was argued that research exploring the social cognition processes, particularly the inference of intentions and dispositions in caregiving situation were needed.