Scholarly Inquiry for Nursing Practice: An International Journal, Vol. 4, No.

3,1990

Predictors of Burden Among

Wife Caregivers
Karen Meier Robinson, D.N.S., R.N., C.
School of Nursing, University of Louisville
Louisville, Kentucky

The relationship of caregiver health, past marital adjustment, as well as

received social support to caregiving burden was studied in 78 wives who
served as primary caregivers to husbands with irreversible memory impair-
ment for an average of 4 years and 10 months. In addition, socioeconomic
status and attitudes toward asking for help were investigated. This paper is
based on the same data set as a previous article that focused on depression.
Past marital adjustment was a significant (p < .001) predictor of subjective
burden and accounted for 20% of the total explained variance (22%). Socio-
economic status and attitude toward asking for help were the significant (p <
.001) predictors of objective burden and accounted for 12% of the total variance
(17%). Received social support did not predict caregiver adjustment. The
finding that past marital adjustment was significantly related to subjective
burden suggests that caregivers with unhappy past marriages may need interven-
tion in order to reframe past grievances in their marriages. Findings regarding
social status indicate that caregivers with a higher income could purchase
services, thus decreasing the amount of disruption in their lives and households.

Caring for someone with irreversible dementia is a most stressful form of

caregiving (Hirschfeld, 1983). Research has demonstrated that when older
persons need care, family members are the primary source of that care (Jones &
Vetter, 1984). The burden of care is not shared equally among all family members.
If the impaired elder is married, the most involved individual, or primary
caregiver, is usually the spouse (Shanas, 1979). Wife caregivers often experience
social isolation, lack of time for self, family, and friends, career interruptions, and
financial drain (Pratt, Schmall, Wright, & Cleland, 1985). Wives have been
identified to be the highest risk group among caregivers (Cantor, 1983). The
purpose of this study was to investigate factors related to objective and subjective
burden in wives who care for their husbands at home. An understanding of the
factors related to both types of burden in these wives should help provide a basis
for assessment and subsequent intervention with wife caregivers to decrease
burden. This paper is based on the same data set as a previous paper by the author
(Robinson, 1989) which focused on depression.

© 1990 Springer Publishing Company 189