This study examined linkages between providing care for a parent (in contrast to not providing any care to other kin or nonkin) and four dimensions of physical health (self-rated health, functional limitations, physical symptoms, chronic conditions), as well as moderation of these linkages by gender and a negative dimension of marital quality--marital strain. Regression models were estimated us...

BACKGROUND A little-studied issue in the provision of care at home by informal caregivers is the increase in older adult patients with chronic illness, and more specifically, multiple chronic conditions (MCC). We know little about the caregiving experience for this population, particularly as it is affected by social location, which refers to either a group's or individual's place/location in s...

This issue of Medicine & Health/ Rhode Island offers a broad perspective of caregiving across distinct developmental periods and with various illnesses. While the primary emphasis is family caregiving, attention is also devoted to professional caregivers in nursing homes. Below is a brief description for clinicians regarding options for assessing the needs of family caregivers. This introductio...

BACKGROUND It is well known that informal caregiving negatively affects caregivers' mental health, while social activities improve mental health outcomes among middle-aged and elderly individuals. The goal of the present study was to examine how participation in social activities affected the trajectory of an informal caregiver's psychological distress. METHODS We used the data from a nationw...

Attachment and caregiving are separate motivational systems that share the common evolutionary purpose of favoring child security. In the goal of studying the processes underlying the transmission of attachment styles, this study focused on the role of adult attachment styles in shaping preferences toward particular styles of caregiving. We hypothesized a correspondence between attachment and c...

PURPOSE Drawing from stress and coping models, we examined heterogeneity in the expression of familism (i.e., beliefs about the caregiving role) and its impact on psychological distress among African American women caregivers. DESIGN AND METHODS We relied on data from the Black Rural and Urban Caregivers Mental Health and Functioning study, a cross-sectional study of 521 midwestern African Am...

Daughters and daughters-in-law of presently unmarried elders were studied longitudinally, and the data were analyzed to determine how two transitions in caregiving status affected the women of the younger generation. One transition compared noncaregivers who had become caregivers 1 year later ("caregiving entrants," n = 33) with continuing noncaregivers (n = 56) and with veteran continuing care...

Executive functions (EFs; e.g. working memory, inhibitory control) are mediated by the prefrontal cortex and associated with optimal cognitive and socio-emotional development. This study provides the first concurrent analysis of the relative contributions of maternal EF and caregiving to child EF. A group of children and their mothers (n = 62) completed age-appropriate interaction (10, 24, 36 m...