Measuring subjective response (SR) of family members to caring for victims of degenerative dementia has been a major research focus. But scant attention has been given to the social- psychological context of this measurement. Investigators have assumed that respondents will describe accurately reactions to and feeling about caring for their spouse, parent or other relative. Because of societal expectations surrounding the family caregiving role, inventories of SR well may be at risk for confounding by subjects, tendency to give socially desirable responses (SDRT). To the degree that SDRT varies systematically with caregiver characteristics (e.g., age), accounts of SR among caregiver subgroups may be rendered invalid, and interventions and policies formulated on their basis inappropriate. The alms of this study are to: 1) document the relationship between SDRT and self-reports of SR to caregiving; 2) identify caregiver characteristics associated with SDRT; 3) describe the relationship between caregiver SR and caregiver characteristics; and 4) determine the effects of controlling for SDRT on relationships between caregiver characteristics and SR. Sixty spouse and 60 non-spouse caregivers of persons with Alzheimer,s Disease or a related dementia will be recruited from the AC Patient Registry. A trained interviewer will administer a face-to-face interview and self-administered SR to caregiving and SDRT scales, and a measure of SDRT. Characteristics of the caregiver and care recipient will also be ascertained. Correlational analysis will be used to determine the relationships among SR to caregiving, caregiver characteristics, and SDRT. Factor analysis will be used to examine the structural relationship between SR and SDRT scales. Multiple regression will be used to examine the effect of controlling for SDRT on the relationship between SR and caregiver characteristics.
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