Emotional Support from Care Recipients, Caring Relationship Quality, and Caregiving Self-Efficacy among Family Caregivers of Older Adults

ABSTRACT

We analyzed 756 family caregivers (mean age = 62.3 years), investigating how emotional support from older care recipients was linked to caregivers’ self-efficacy through caring relationship qualtiy. Results indicate a significant positive association between emotional support and caregivers’ self-efficacy (r = 0.207, p < .01). Caring relationship quality positively correlated with emotional support (r = 0.292, p < .01) and caregivers’ self-efficacy (r = 0.141, p < .01). Controlling for socialdemographic and care-related factors, relationship quality partially mediated the association between emotional support from care recipients and caregivers’ self-efficacy. This suggests that interventions supporting caregivers’ self-efficacy may benefit from considering both care recipients and dyadic relationships.

KEYWORDS:

• Family caregivers
• informal caregivers
• caring efficacy
• emotional support
• caring relationship

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Ethics review

The Ethics Committee of the School of Government, Shanghai University of Political Science and Law determined that this study did not need a full board review as the data analyzed were publicly accessible and individually deidentified.

Author contributions

Z. Hua designed the study, performed all statistical analyzes, and wrote and revised the manuscript.

Data availability

The data that support the findings of this study are openly available at www.nhats.org. The NHATS was sponsored by the National Institute on Aging [grant number NIA U01AG32947] and was conducted by the Johns Hopkins University.

Additional information

Funding

This research did not receive any specific grant from funding agencies in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors.