Adult Children's Perceptions of Caregiver Stress and Satisfaction

Abstract

A guiding hypothesis of gerontological research on caregiving burdens and stress is that caregiver stress and satisfaction are negatively related. I explored this hypothesis using a subsample of adult child caregivers from the 1982 National Long Term Care Survey. Contrary to expectation, I found a positive zero-order correlation between stress and satisfaction. Demographic characteristics of the caregiver, level of parental impairment, level of care provided, and caregiving problems explain 25% of the variance in perceived stress but only 5% of the variance in satisfaction. Adult children most involved in the caregiving experience report both high stress and high satisfaction.