SOCIAL AND ENVIRONMENTAL FACTORS LEADING TO CAREGIVER STRESS AND BURDEN IN SENIORS CARING FOR OTHER SENIORS

Abstract

The role of informal caregivers remains critical for many older adults. Informal caregivers are unpaid individuals, including friends and family members. This research examined the primary factors affecting stress and burden levels among older adult informal caregivers. Specifically, it aimed to identify the main factors influencing stress and burden levels and to determine whether personal or environmental factors have the greatest impact, based on psychological stress theory and the stress process model. Data from the 2020 U.S. nationally representative survey on caregiving were used in this study (NAC & AARP Public Policy Institute, 2020). Two hierarchical multiple linear regression analyses (MRA) were conducted for RQ1 and RQ2. Three moderation analyses were employed for RQ3 to test the multivariate hypotheses regarding gender and support needs, examining their moderating effects on the association between caregiving stress and burden variables. This study consisted of two separate dependent variables stress and burden and controlling for demographic variables (age, gender, race and ethnicity, education, and income). This study included two sets of factors that comprise the independent variables: environmental variables (ADLs, IADLs, number of adult recipients, and number of health conditions of the recipient) and personal variables (caregiving hours and support needs). The sample size for this study comprised 659 informal caregivers. Males comprised 44% of the sample, while females comprised 55.7%. The results from multivariate testing indicated that approximately 21% of the variability in informal caregivers' stress levels is explained by the selected variables. The results revealed a statistically significant relationship between caregiver gender, support needs, burden, and stress. However, when examining gender and support needs as moderators of burden and stress, no moderating effect was observed. Among all predictors, caregivers' support needs emerged as the strongest predictor of both stress and burden. The study provided a discussion of the findings, including a discussion of limitations, implications for social work practice and policy, and directions for future research.