The importance of family relationships with nursing facility staff for family caregiver burden and depression.
We explore the association between family caregiver depression and the quality of staff-family relationships, and we test burden as a mediator of this relationship. Using structural equation modeling, we used data from a representative sample of 932 family members from 20 nursing homes in Central New York to examine the association between staff-family relationship quality and family caregiver depression. We then tested family caregiver burden as a mediator of the relationship between staff-family relationship quality and family caregiver depression. Staff-family relationship quality, specifically perceived conflict with staff, is significantly associated with family caregiver depression. Further, caregiver burden mediates this relationship. Interventions to improve staff-family relationships may impact family caregiver depression by reducing the stress that family caregivers experience.
Chen
Cory K
CK
Carolina Program in Healthcare and Aging Research, University of North Carolina--Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC 27514, USA. corychen@email.unc.edu
Sabir
Myra
M
Zimmerman
Sheryl
S
Suitor
Jill
J
Pillemer
Karl
K
D000368:Aged; D017028:Caregivers / Q000523:psychology*; D003220:Conflict, Psychological; D003863:Depression / Q000517:prevention & control* / Q000523:psychology; D005260:Female; D006707:Homes for the Aged; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008960:Models, Psychological; D009518:New York; D009735:Nursing Homes; D011368:Professional-Family Relations; D012944:Social Support; D013315:Stress, Psychological / Q000517:prevention & control / Q000523:psychology