title: Psychosocial factors of caregiver burden in child caregivers: results from the new national study of caregiving.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Over 50 million informal caregivers in the United States provide care to an aging adult, saving the economy hundreds of billions of dollars annually from costly hospitalization or institutionalization. Despite the benefits associated with caregiving, caregiver stress can lead to negative physical and mental health consequences, or "caregiver burden". Given these potential negative consequences of caregiver burden, it is important not only to understand the multidimensional components of burden but to also understand the experience from the perspective of the caregiver themselves. Therefore, the objectives of our study are to use exploratory factor analysis to obtain a set of latent factors among a subset of caregiver burden questions identified in previous studies and assess their reliability.
  
  
  METHODS
  All data was obtained from the 2011 National Study of Caregiving (NSOC). Exploratory factor analysis (EFA) was performed to identify a set of latent factors assessing four domains of caregiver burden in "child caregivers": those informal caregivers who provide care to a parent or stepparent. Sensitivity analysis was also conducted by repeating the EFA on demographic subsets of caregivers.
  
  
  RESULTS
  After multiple factor analyses, four consistent caregiver burden factors emerged from the 23 questions analyzed: Negative emotional, positive emotional, social, and financial. Reliability of each factor varied, and was strongest for the positive emotional domain for caregiver burden. These domains were generally consistent across demographic subsets of informal caregivers.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  These results provide researchers a more comprehensive understanding of caregiver burden to target interventions to protect caregiver health and maintain this vital component of the US health care system.
authors.affiliation: Division of Epidemiology, Department of Family Medicine and Population Health, Virginia Commonwealth University School of Medicine, 830 E. Main Street, 8th Floor, P.O. Box 980212, Richmond, VA, 23298-0212, USA. scohen@vcu.edu.
authors.forename: Steven A
authors.initials: SA
authors.lastname: Cohen
authors.affiliation: Division of Epidemiology, Department of Family Medicine and Population Health, Virginia Commonwealth University School of Medicine, 830 E. Main Street, 8th Floor, P.O. Box 980212, Richmond, VA, 23298-0212, USA. scook2@vcu.edu.
authors.forename: Sarah
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Cook
authors.affiliation: Division of Epidemiology, Department of Family Medicine and Population Health, Virginia Commonwealth University School of Medicine, 830 E. Main Street, 8th Floor, P.O. Box 980212, Richmond, VA, 23298-0212, USA. kelleyl@vcu.edu.
authors.forename: Lauren
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Kelley
authors.affiliation: Division of Epidemiology, Department of Family Medicine and Population Health, Virginia Commonwealth University School of Medicine, 830 E. Main Street, 8th Floor, P.O. Box 980212, Richmond, VA, 23298-0212, USA. sandota@vcu.edu.
authors.forename: Trisha
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Sando
authors.affiliation: Department of Internal Medicine, Virginia Commonwealth University School of Medicine, Richmond, VA, USA. phillipsae4@vcu.edu.
authors.forename: Allison E
authors.initials: AE
authors.lastname: Bell
mesh_terms: D000223:Adaptation, Psychological; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D017028:Caregivers / Q000523:psychology*; D017281:Cost of Illness; D005163:Factor Analysis, Statistical; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010290:Parents / Q000523:psychology*; D011788:Quality of Life; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors; D013315:Stress, Psychological; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D014481:United States