• Journal of Korean Academy of Nursing
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• v.29 no.5
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• pp.1123-1133
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• 1999

The concept of empathy was examined In the professional caregiving relationship and its application was extended to the context of informal caregiving. Using the Lazarus and Folkman model, the influence of empathy on the caregiver's experience in the caregiving relationship was illustrated. The effects of the caregiver's empathy on his/her own caregiving outcomes were investigated by examining the relationship between empathy and burnout experience and life satisfaction. Empathy increased emotional exhaustion while increased personal accomplishment and personalization, indicating conflicting relationship between empathy and burnout. This conflict relationship between empathy and burnout can be explained by suggesting the distinct roles of two dimensions of empathy emotional and cognitive. The needs for more research to support the critical roles of empathy in informal caregiving context and to examine the definite roles of two dimensions of empathy were suggested.

• Journal of Korean Academy of Nursing
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• v.29 no.3
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• pp.585-595
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• 1999

The purpose of this study was to examine the predictors of burnout among informal caregivers of older adults. One hundred thirty seven caregivers who had provided care to older adults over 60 years of age for more than one month were included in the study. Most of the caregivers were white (91%) and female (78%). Mean ages of the caregivers were 64 years and 78% of them were married. Seventy percent of the older adults suffered from Alzheimer and related disease. In this study, caregivers reported that they experienced burnout once a month. The scores of emotional exhaustion and reduced personal accomplishment of the caregivers were in the moderate burnout range. To examine the predictors of burnout, discriminant analysis was used. Caregivers were divided by two groups based on the sum of scores (cutpoint＝6) on three dimensions of burnout after each dimension was categorized into high(3), moderate(2), and low(1). Nine predictors were included in the analysis : Caregiver's age, employment status, Instrumental Activities of Daily Living (IADL) of the older adult, presence of dementia of the older adult, caregiver's empathy toward the older adult (emotional and cognitive), and 3 coping strategies (negative, problem-focused, cognitive reconstructioning). Caregivers who reported high burnout showed higher cognitive empathy toward the older adults than those who showed low burnout. Caregivers who experienced high burnout used negative coping more often, and cognitive reconstructioning coping and problem focused coping less often than their counterparts. Wilks' Lambda was .78 indicating that differences between the two groups were significant. Cognitive empathy and cognitive reconstructioning coping showed high standardized canonical discriminat function coefficients over .40. Discriminant function with 9 predictors correctly classified 71% of the sample. In conclusion, informal caregivers also experienced certain level of burnout. Cognitive empathy and coping strategies predicted burnout experience of the caregivers. Based on this study, nursing intervention to the informal caregivers to improve their cognitive empathy toward the older adults and to modify their coping strategies in a way to reduce burnout experience can be applied. Further research to develop effective nursing interventions for the purpose of reducing burnout experience by modifying predictors was suggested.

• Journal of the Korean Home Economics Association
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• v.40 no.9
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• pp.207-221
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• 2002

The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of perceived gain in caregiving on the positive aspects of psychological well-being. The data were gathered from 262 informal caregivers who provided care for relatives or friends in need due to illness or disability. The main results were as follows: First, overall level of perceived gain in caregiving was above the median level. Second, higher gains were perceived by the caregivers who were more educated and who had more remote relationships with care recipients. Third, perceived gain was a significant variable influencing caregiver' psychological well-being. In addition, when the perceived gain variable was added to the regression model, no socio-demographic characteristics of the caregiver and the caregiving context were found to be related to psychological well-being. Theoretical and practical implications of these results were discussed.

• Journal of Korean Academy of Nursing
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• v.30 no.4
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• pp.893-904
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• 2000

The sample of this study consisted of 140 informal caregivers who provided care to the older adults(over 60 years of age) in Great Cleveland, USA. Self-rated questionnaires were utilized to collect information. The purpose of the study was to identify coping strategies most frequently utilized by informal caregivers of older adults and to examine predictors of the caregivers' health responses to the caregiving situation applying Lazarus and Folkman stress model(1984). Stepwise multiple regression was used to identify significant predictors among caregivers' demographic-socio-economic factors, older adult's dependency of activities of daily living(ADLs), caregiver's appraisal to the caregiving situation, and coping strategies. Informal caregivers (N=140) included in the study utilized help-seeking and problem-solving coping strategies more than self-blame and minimization of threat coping strategies. Caregivers' responses to the caregiving situation were observed by caregivers' perceived physical health, depression and life satisfaction. For perceived physical health, threat appraisal, older adult's dependency on ADLs, existential growth coping strategy, and monthly income accounted for 25% of the variance. Caregivers who appraised the caregiving situation as more threatening, reported higher dependency on ADLs, used more existential growth coping strategy, and had higher monthly income reported better physical health. For depression, threat appraisal, stress appraisal, existential growth coping strategy, self-blame coping strategy, and monthly income accounted for 48% of the variance. Caregivers who used more existential growth coping and less self-blame coping, appraised the situation as less threatening, less stressful, and had higher monthly income reported less depression. For life satisfaction, self-blame coping, existential growth coping, monthly income, stress appraisal accounted for 49% of the variance. Caregivers who used more existential growth coping, less self-blame coping, less stress appraisal, lower monthly income reported better life satisfaction. In conclusion, informal caregivers in this study utilized positive coping strategies such as problem-focused, existential growth, help-seeking, rather than negative coping strategies including self-blame. When they utilized positive coping strategies more often, caregivers experienced higher perceived physical health, higher life satisfaction and lower depression. Therefore, nursing intervention which utilized positive coping strategies is needed to enhance informal caregivers to have positive health responses to the caregiving demands.

• Perspectives in Nursing Science
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• v.3 no.1
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• pp.47-60
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• 2006

BACKGROUND: Social, legal, and economic factors have changed the delivery of care to elderly who are frail and/or chronically ill. Increasing number of the elderly are now treated in the community, while living with or in close proximity to their family. It is evident that families play a major role of support for elderly persons in our society. This paper provides a review and analysis of studies that have investigated informal caregiving issues encompassing physical, psychological, emotional, and social domains. RESULTS OF THE REVIEW: Family caregiving often interfered with workplace and other responsibilities, creating physical, emotional, and financial stress for caregivers. Relatively high volumes of research addressed caregiving issues in the families of Alzheimer patients and in the areas of emotional and psychological impact of caregiving. Few studies explicitly investigated the role of informal caregivers in the management of other chronic conditions such as stroke or depression or physical consequences of long-term caregiving. While most studies were focused on negative aspects of caregiving, a few studies found it rewarding. Often the burden, stress, and socio-economic effects on the family caregiving for an elderly person were not sufficiently appreciated. CONCLUSIONS: Positive outcomes for both the caregiver and the care recipient are more likely to occur when effective levels of collaboration exist between health professionals and caregivers. As a first step, a better understanding of the caregiving experience such as caregiver characteristics, care recipient characteristics, and social stigma is important for nurses to minimize the burden of care so that appropriate interventions can be developed. In addition, further studies are needed to examine the role and needs of informal caregivers in the care of increasing number of frail and/or chronic ill elderly treated in the community.

• Journal of Korean Academy of Nursing
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• v.32 no.5
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• pp.665-672
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• 2002

It was identified that how many homebound bedridden elderlies and their primary caregivers were depressed, and which factors affected the bedridden elderly's depression. Method: The subjects were 191 homebound bedridden elderlies and their primary caregivers. The affecting factors were classified into two categories : bedridden elderly and their primary caregiver related factors. Then bedridden elderly's factors were classified demographic and disease-related factors again. The stepwise regression was used to identify significant factors. Result: The prevalence of bedridden elderly's and caregiver's depression was 77.8% and 67.0%, respectively. And the model explained 33.3% of variance of bedridden elderly's depression. Cognitively-impaired female elderlies who had depressed caregivers were found to be more depressed. And caregivers who perceived burden were identified to be more depressed. Conclusion: It is recommended that the health professionals need to identify bedridden elderlies and caregivers at risk of depression. Especially elderlies who is in poor cognition, those who are female, and those whose caregivers were depressed might be considered carefully in all counseling or follow-up. Also the primary caregivers must be helped to access already available formal and informal support.

• Korean Journal of Social Welfare
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• v.54
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• pp.203-220
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• 2003

The purpose of this study is to identify and empirically study the factors that significantly influence amount and types of Informal caregiving to severely disabled elderly who have functional limitations. For this research, a set of caregivers living with the severely elderly were surveyed. Among collected data, data for 211 caregivers were used for this study. The results suggest that a variety of factors determine informal caregivers do systematically determine their allocation of time to the provision of elderly care. The results of four OLS regressions using data surveyed are as follows. First, The hypothesized role of income is supported in model 1 of the four regression models. Second, the technological components of informal care production significantly influences caregiving hours include the number of ADLs and IADLS needs help, the number of caregivers in the team, the utilization of formal services. Third, any component of production technology of household goods do not significantly influence caregiving hours. Fourth, the components of preferences significantly influence caregiving hours include caregiver's participation in market work, willingness money to pay market-purchased care for the elderly.

• Journal of Families and Better Life
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• v.20 no.1
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• pp.65-73
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• 2002

The purpose of this study was to describe 1) the prevalence of caregiving among adult men and women in Korea and 2) the characteristics of caregiving context. The main results were as follows: 1) About 1 in 6 adults reported that they provided care for the relatives and friends during the previous year. 2) The proportion of male to female caregivers was similar, indicating a higher prevalence of male involvement than previous studies indicated. Yet, the relationships to care recipients and types of care were found to be different by gender of caregiver 3) Adult caregivers are most likely to provide care for the elderly, but continue to provide care for younger persons as well. 4) A nontrivial proportion of the respondents reported providing care for more than one person, suggesting the need to pay special attention to these multiple caregivers.

• Safety and Health at Work
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• v.12 no.3
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• pp.296-303
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• 2021

Background: Rapid population aging in developed countries has resulted in the working-age population increasingly being tasked with the provision of informal care. Methods: An educational intervention was delivered to 21 carer-employees employed at a Canadian University. Work role function, job security, schedule control, work-family conflict, familywork conflict, and supervisor and coworker support were measured as part of an aggregated workplace experience score. This score was used to measure changes pre/post intervention and at a follow-up period approximately 12 months post intervention. Three random intercept models were created via linear mixed modeling to illustrate changes in participants' workplace experience across time. Results: All three models reported statistically significant random and fixed effects intercepts, with a positive coefficient of change. Conclusion: This suggests that the intervention demonstrated an improvement of the workplace experience score for participants over time, with the association particularly strong immediately after intervention.

• 한국노년학
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• v.29 no.2
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• pp.377-394
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• 2009

Using the Socio-cultural Stress and Coping model, this study proposed a path model to explore how cultural values affect the physical health of Korean American caregivers through caregiver burden, receipt of informal social support and utilization of formal care services. For physical health outcomes, three physical health indicators were employed: self-reported global physical health, self-reported blood pressure, and salivary cortisol. The path model was analyzed by using a sample of 87 Korean caregivers living in Los Angeles County and Orange County, California, USA. The major findings of this study included the following: 1) Stronger belief in cultural values was associated with more frequent utilization of formal care services, leading to lower levels of systolic boold pressure; 2) Cultural values did not affect the physical health of Korean American caregivers through caregiver burden. The demonstration of positive effects of cultural values on the physical health of Korean America caregivers through social support utilization call attention to the need of further research on the understudied group providing family care to frail older family members.