While past research has conceptualized caregiving as a static phenomenon, it is a dynamic process with differential impacts depending on the duration of caregiving and the generational relationship between caregiver and care recipient. The proposed longitudinal study examines caregiving in the context of the developmental consequences of nonnormative events, of which caregiving is an example. We will investigate the caregiving experiences and the impact of caregiving on the subsequent development of adult daughters and wives of older persons over a three year period. Both the effect of generational relationship and duration of caregiving on the well-being of older women will be examined using a probability sample consisting of 400 caregivers and 200 women on the same age who have no caregiving responsibility. Five research questions are addressed: 1) How does duration of caregiving moderate the impact of caregiving? 2) How does the generational relationship between the caregiver and the care recipient moderate the impact of caregiving? 3) What are the differences between caregivers and noncaregivers in changes in the dependent variables during the 36 month study period? 4) What are the impacts of changes in psychological resources, formal and informal support networks, other caregiving responsibilities, employment status, and level of care recipient's dependency on changes in the caregiver's well-being? and 5) What factors are predictive of mortality and changes in the residential arrangements of the care recipient across and within study groups? Specific hypotheses regarding each of these research questions are examined using three data analytic strategies: MANOVA with repeated measures to assess differences in group means, interaction effects and trends in group means over time; 2) structural equation modelling with LISREL to estimate stability over time in the dependent measures, and the factors that predict change in the prospective models; and 3) event history analysis to model change in residential status of the care recipient over the course of the study.
| Li, Lydia W (2005) From caregiving to bereavement: trajectories of depressive symptoms among wife and daughter caregivers. J Gerontol B Psychol Sci Soc Sci 60:P190-8 |
| Seltzer, M M; Li, L W (2000) The dynamics of caregiving: transitions during a three-year prospective study. Gerontologist 40:165-78 |
| Li, L W; Seltzer, M M; Greenberg, J S (1999) Change in depressive symptoms among daughter caregivers: an 18-month longitudinal study. Psychol Aging 14:206-19 |
| Li, L W; Seltzer, M M; Greenberg, J S (1997) Social support and depressive symptoms: differential patterns in wife and daughter caregivers. J Gerontol B Psychol Sci Soc Sci 52:S200-11 |
| Seltzer, M M; Li, L W (1996) The transitions of caregiving: subjective and objective definitions. Gerontologist 36:614-26 |
