Caregiving Choice and Emotional Stress Among Cancer Caregivers.
Caring for a relative or friend with cancer may be highly demanding and emotionally burdensome. Theory suggests that personal characteristics of a caregiver may contribute directly to a caregiver's emotional health. An underexplored variable is a caregiver's perception of choice in providing care to a relative or friend. Thus, this study sought to characterize perceived choice in providing care among family cancer caregivers and examine its association with emotional stress. This study is a secondary analysis of cross-sectional telephone interviews of 1,247 family caregivers, which included 104 cancer caregivers. The findings indicated that a high majority of cancer caregivers expressed elevated emotional stress. Most caregivers perceived themselves to have had a choice in providing care; however, a perceived lack of choice in providing care was significantly associated with greater emotional stress. Assessing clinical and policy-related strategies for alleviating concerns related to choice may be of value in the cancer context.
Fox Chase Cancer Center, Philadelphia, PA, USA margaret.longacre@fccc.edu.
Margaret L
ML
Longacre
Fox Chase Cancer Center, Philadelphia, PA, USA.
Eric A
EA
Ross
Fox Chase Cancer Center, Philadelphia, PA, USA.
Carolyn Y
CY
Fang
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D017028:Caregivers / Q000523:psychology*; D002755:Choice Behavior; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000451:nursing*; D013315:Stress, Psychological / Q000150:complications* / Q000523:psychology
cancer; caregiver; caregiving; choice; stress