Perceived Family Function, Social Support and Emotion among Caregivers in Long-term Care

Abstract

The purposes of this research were:(1)to compare the difference of family function, social support, positive affect and negative affect in family caregivers. (2)to investigate the relationships among family function, social support, positive affect and negative affect in family caregivers. The research consisted two stages, a pilot and a planned major study. In stage one, 30 family caregivers were used to test the reliability of instruments used. In stage two, 87 family caregivers were from family caregivers of older people who met the following three requirements (1)to be 65 years old or older and to reside in a nursing home, to attedn a day care program or receive home care; (2)to be able to understand the Mandarin or Taiwanese language; (3)to be capable of verbal communication. There was no significant difference of family function and social support among different long-term care models F(2.84)=.25, F(2.84)=.33, p＞.05). Home care and nursing home had significantly higher score on positive affect than that in daycare(F(2.84)=3.43, p＜.05). However, there was no significant difference of negative affects among different long*term care models (F(2.84)=3.09, p=.05). The significant correlation between family function with social support was .52(p=.05), social support with positive affect was .20(p＜.05), positive with negative affect was -.28(p＜.05). Recommendations derived from this study include to provide respite care for caregivers and establish community-based institution for the elderly.