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Research on Aging, Vol. 18, No. 2, 139-174 (1996)
DOI: 10.1177/0164027596182001

Understanding Stress in Informal Caregiving

Is Burden a Problem of the Individual or of Society?

Valerie Braithwaite

The Australian National University

The poor psychological health of caregivers of the frail aged is examined using the stress paradigm and the crises of decline model of caregiving burden. Whereas stress paradigms generally focus on environmental stressors and individual resources, the crises of decline model conceptualizes stress within the social dynamics of the caregiving dyad. Data from a cross-sectional study of 144 caregivers supported both models. Burden was more likely when the primary caregiver experienced degeneration, conflict, enmeshment, unpreparedness, and unwillingness. Minor psychiatric symptoms were explained in part by burden but also by more traditional stressors (supervisory workload) and resources (physical health, self- esteem, mastery, coping strategies, social network availability). Individualistic interventions to relieve burden and symptoms are justifiable on the basis of this study, but with limits to their likely success-limits imposed by family institutions of care in which primary carers lack experience and feel discomfort with degenerative conditions.


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