IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/spr/jhappi/v14y2013i2p673-687.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Adult Children’s Caregiver Burden and Depression: The Moderating Roles of Parent–Child Relationship Satisfaction and Feedback from Others

Author

Listed:
  • Wei Lin
  • Lung Chen
  • Tsui-Shan Li

Abstract

The issue of elderly care has generated great interest because today, most of us live in an aging society. It has been found that caring for one’s elderly parents is a stressful experience that is related to negative outcomes. In addition, accompanied with the decline in fertility may make adult children feel heavier caregiver’s burden. Therefore, the current study investigates moderators that may help reduce the caregiver burden. Following the conservation of resources theory (COR), we hypothesized that feedback from others and a good parent–child relationship serve as resources that may help the individual manage the stress associated with caring for his or her elderly parents. To examine our hypotheses, we collected data from 502 adult children who were primary caregivers for their elderly parents. All participants completed the Burden Assessment Scale (BAS), the Center for Epidemiological Studies Depression Scale (CES-D), the Feedback from Others Scale, and the Parent–Child Relationship Satisfaction Scale. Supporting our prediction, we found a positive correlation between the caregiver’s burden and the caregiver’s levels of depression. Furthermore, both moderation effects were significant. Consistent with our hypotheses, the relationship between caregiver burden and his or her level of depression was weaker when participants had high feedback from others or had a better parent–child relationship. Our findings highlight the view that possessing more resources may help the individual manage the stress associated with caring for elderly parents. Implications for issues related to elderly care are discussed. Copyright Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2013

Suggested Citation

  • Wei Lin & Lung Chen & Tsui-Shan Li, 2013. "Adult Children’s Caregiver Burden and Depression: The Moderating Roles of Parent–Child Relationship Satisfaction and Feedback from Others," Journal of Happiness Studies, Springer, vol. 14(2), pages 673-687, April.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:jhappi:v:14:y:2013:i:2:p:673-687
    DOI: 10.1007/s10902-012-9348-0
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1007/s10902-012-9348-0
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s10902-012-9348-0?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Anna A. Amirkhanyan & Douglas A. Wolf, 2006. "Parent Care and the Stress Process: Findings From Panel Data," The Journals of Gerontology: Series B, The Gerontological Society of America, vol. 61(5), pages 248-255.
    2. Jamila Bookwala, 2009. "The Impact of Parent Care on Marital Quality and Well-Being in Adult Daughters and Sons," The Journals of Gerontology: Series B, The Gerontological Society of America, vol. 64(3), pages 339-347.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Marie Blaise & Laetitia Dillenseger, 2020. "Informal caregivers and life satisfaction: Empirical Evidence from the Netherlands," Working Papers of BETA 2020-55, Bureau d'Economie Théorique et Appliquée, UDS, Strasbourg.
    2. Puzanova, K. (Пузанова, К.), 2015. "Urban Environment and the Cultural Space of Megapolis: A Comparative Study of Social Barriers of Urban Development [Городская Среда И Культурное Пространство Мегаполиса: Сравнительное Исследование ," Published Papers mn58, Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration.
    3. Marie Blaise & Laetitia Dillenseger, 2023. "Informal Caregivers and Life Satisfaction: Empirical Evidence from the Netherlands," Journal of Happiness Studies, Springer, vol. 24(6), pages 1883-1930, August.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Elenka Brenna & Cinzia Di Novi, 2013. "Is caring for elderly parents detrimental to women’s mental health? The influence of the European North-South gradient," DISCE - Working Papers del Dipartimento di Economia e Finanza def004, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Dipartimenti e Istituti di Scienze Economiche (DISCE).
    2. Cinzia Di Novi & Elenka Brenna, 2013. "Is caring for elderly parents detrimental for women�s mental health? The influence of the European North-South gradient," Working Papers 2013:23, Department of Economics, University of Venice "Ca' Foscari".
    3. repec:ctc:serie1:def4 is not listed on IDEAS
    4. Oshio, Takashi & 小塩, 隆士 & Nozaki, Kayo & Kobayashi, Miki, 2011. "Division of Household Labor and Marital Satisfaction in China, Japan, and Korea," PIE/CIS Discussion Paper 502, Center for Intergenerational Studies, Institute of Economic Research, Hitotsubashi University.
    5. Takashi Oshio & Kayo Nozaki & Miki Kobayashi, 2013. "Division of Household Labor and Marital Satisfaction in China, Japan, and Korea," Journal of Family and Economic Issues, Springer, vol. 34(2), pages 211-223, June.
    6. Bauer, Jan Michael & Sousa-Poza, Alfonso, 2015. "Impacts of Informal Caregiving on Caregiver Employment, Health, and Family," IZA Discussion Papers 8851, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    7. Elenka Brenna & Cinzia Novi, 2016. "Is caring for older parents detrimental to women’s mental health? The role of the European North–South gradient," Review of Economics of the Household, Springer, vol. 14(4), pages 745-778, December.
    8. Brenna, Elenka, 2021. "Should I care for my mum or for my kid? Sandwich generation and depression burden in Italy," Health Policy, Elsevier, vol. 125(3), pages 415-423.
    9. Young Kyung Do & Edward C. Norton & Sally C. Stearns & Courtney Harold Van Houtven, 2015. "Informal Care and Caregiver's Health," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 24(2), pages 224-237, February.
    10. Marie Blaise & Laetitia Dillenseger, 2020. "Informal caregivers and life satisfaction: Empirical Evidence from the Netherlands," Working Papers of BETA 2020-55, Bureau d'Economie Théorique et Appliquée, UDS, Strasbourg.
    11. Guangya Liu & Matthew E. Dupre, 2016. "Health Trajectories of Women in China: The Role of Parental Caregiving," The Journals of Gerontology: Series B, The Gerontological Society of America, vol. 71(2), pages 320-331.
    12. Bom, Judith & Bakx, Pieter & Schut, Frederik & van Doorslaer, Eddy, 2019. "Health effects of caring for and about parents and spouses," The Journal of the Economics of Ageing, Elsevier, vol. 14(C).
    13. Lawrence B. Sacco & Stefanie König & Hugo Westerlund & Loretta G. Platts, 2022. "Informal Caregiving and Quality of Life Among Older Adults: Prospective Analyses from the Swedish Longitudinal Occupational Survey of Health (SLOSH)," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 160(2), pages 845-866, April.
    14. Diego Alburez‐Gutierrez & Carl Mason & Emilio Zagheni, 2021. "The “Sandwich Generation” Revisited: Global Demographic Drivers of Care Time Demands," Population and Development Review, The Population Council, Inc., vol. 47(4), pages 997-1023, December.
    15. Takashi Oshio & Kemmyo Sugiyama, 2022. "Social Participation as a Moderator for Caregivers’ Psychological Distress: a Dynamic Panel Data Model Analysis in Japan," Applied Research in Quality of Life, Springer;International Society for Quality-of-Life Studies, vol. 17(3), pages 1813-1829, June.
    16. Andrew Caplin & Mi Luo & Kathleen McGarry, 2018. "Measuring And Modeling Intergenerational Links In Relation To Long‐Term Care," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 56(1), pages 100-113, January.
    17. Teo, Hansel, 2023. "The impact of a partner's nursing home admission on individuals' mental well-being," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 327(C).
    18. Costa-Font, Joan & Vilaplana-Prieto, Cristina, 2022. "Mental health effects of caregivers respite: Subsidies or Supports?," The Journal of the Economics of Ageing, Elsevier, vol. 23(C).
    19. Dörte Heger, 2017. "The Mental Health of Children Providing Care to their Elderly Parent," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 26(12), pages 1617-1629, December.
    20. Rellstab, Sara & Bakx, Pieter & García-Gómez, Pilar & van Doorslaer, Eddy, 2020. "The kids are alright - labour market effects of unexpected parental hospitalisations in the Netherlands," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 69(C).
    21. Marie Blaise & Laetitia Dillenseger, 2023. "Informal Caregivers and Life Satisfaction: Empirical Evidence from the Netherlands," Journal of Happiness Studies, Springer, vol. 24(6), pages 1883-1930, August.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:spr:jhappi:v:14:y:2013:i:2:p:673-687. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.