Social support has been identified as a key factor in reducing caregiving distress although the causal paths by which it operates are not yet clear. Social support is not a fixed resource and must be examined in the context of change in need for support, change in type and availability of support, and change in appropriateness of specific types of support for specific needs. Longitudinal analyses that encompass different models of time are urgently needed to understand the dynamics of caregiving. The stressor-distress model specifies the proposed causal linkages between different types of stressors, different sources of social support, and different distress outcomes as these dimensions change throughout the caregiving career. The two-year PROCESS project (Providing Research Opportunities on Caregiver and Elder Social Support) represents a collaborative effort of seven experienced researchers in caregiving and aging. The study will use secondary analysis of data from four completed federally funded longitudinal studies of caregivers to conceptually replicate dynamic models of caregiving support and distress. Taking advantage of three waves of data in each study, models that examine a variety of forms of the stressor-support-distress relationship will be tested, including rarely studied patterns of reciprocal relationships over time. The overall objective is to develop and replicate conceptual models of the relationship between social support and distress across diverse populations of caregivers. Thus, the aims are to: 1) Model patterns of stability and change in care-recipient need for care (stressors), formal and informal support resources, and caregiver distress, and determine how such caregiver attributes as race, gender, and relationship to care-receiver influence the caregiver support process; 2) Develop and test models of the direct, mediating (indirect), moderating, reciprocal, and dynamic effects of conjoint use of formal and informal services on relieving caregiving distress and determine if these models vary by caregiver attributes as race, gender, and caregiver relationships; and 3) Extend the generalizability of results across diverse groups of caregivers in different locations. The results will clarify theoretical tenets of the specificity hypothesis and facilitate determination of where caregiver intervention programs may be most effective in the stressor support/distress process and who are the caregiver populations at greatest risk.
| Miller, B; Townsend, A; Carpenter, E et al. (2001) Social support and caregiver distress: a replication analysis. J Gerontol B Psychol Sci Soc Sci 56:S249-56 |
