The relationship of social norms to use of services and caregiver burden in Japan.
OBJECTIVE
To develop an improved measure of "sekentei" (a social-psychological process that restricts behaviors that do not conform to social norms such as family caregiving) among family caregivers in Japan, and to describe the relationships among sekentei and caregiver's actual use of services, a reluctance to use services, and care burden.


METHODS
Descriptive correlational study. Family caregivers (N = 260) of impaired elders responded to a structured questionnaire.


METHODS
Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses were used to assess the construct validity of the sekentei scale for caregivers (SSC). With the SSC, the relationships among main variables were verified.


RESULTS
The SSC showed satisfactory reliability and validity. Sekentei was significantly correlated with care burden, but not to actual use or reluctance to use services.


CONCLUSIONS
Sekentei is an important factor related to caregiver burden in Japan. Further research might include the extent to which sekentei is a factor in care burden in other cultures.
Asahara
K
K
School of Allied Medical Sciences, Shinshu University, 3-1-1 Asahi, Matsumoto-city, Nagano, 390-8621 Japan. kasaha@gipac.shinshu-u.ac.jp
Momose
Y
Y
Murashima
S
S
Okubo
N
N
Magilvy
J K
JK
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D017028:Caregivers / Q000523:psychology*; D017281:Cost of Illness; D003469:Culture; D005260:Female; D006299:Health Services for the Aged / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006701:Home Nursing / Q000523:psychology*; D006801:Humans; D007564:Japan; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D012423:Rural Health; D012925:Social Conformity; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires