Virginia L. Smerglia

Stressful Life Events, Social Support, and the Distress of Widowed and Divorced Women A Counteractive Model

Samples of widowed and divorced women drawn from public death and divorce records and matched on age, race, and median income of census tract of residence were used to test Ensel and Lins (1991) counteractive model of the relationships among stress, social support, and distress. As hypothesized, event-related stress and other life stress following the loss of a spouse led to social and psychological distress the following year. Also in line with the hypotheses, stress was associated with increased social support from family and friends. Contrary to the hypotheses, however, social support had mixed effects on distress, depending on the type of support. For widows, practical support help decreased their distress; for divorcees, having someone listen to personal problems was beneficial. Advice did not affect distress for either group, and widows and divorcees who received material support experienced increased distress.

The Impact of Family Environment and Decision-Making Satisfaction on Caregiver Depression: A Path Analytic Model

Objectives: This research examines caregiver depression in the context of traditional care-related primary stressors, such as the caregiving context and care-recipient impairment, and secondary stressors, such as family environment and decisionmaking satisfaction. Methods: The authors examine a causal (path) model of depression among 244 caregivers. Ordinary least squares regression results are used to determine the direct and indirect effects of stressors on caregiver depression. Results: The path coefficients obtained show that adaptability and conflict have the most powerful net effects. With the caregiving context variables, they explain approximately 30% of the variance in decision-making satisfaction. Family adaptability and decision-making satisfaction also have significant paths. The caregiving context, network, family environment, and decision-making variables explain approximately 25% of the variance in caregiver depression. Discussion: These findings suggest that practitioners working with caregivers to ameliorate depression need to examine the broader aspects of family environment and caregiver perceptions related to decision making.

Social support and adjustment to caring for elder family members: A multi-study analysis

This multi-study analysis systematically examines research findings on relationships between social support and caregiver adjustment to discover whether informal support helps family caregivers. Caring for older relatives is an ongoing stressful life course event and role. Informal social support is often used as a predictor of caregiver adjustment outcomes. It is widely believed to enhance adjustment. Yet the varied research results do not necessarily support this belief. A computer-generated literature search of social sciences and medical databases produced thirty-five caregiving articles, published in refereed journals, which meet study parameters. A coding form was developed to categorize social support and adjustment variables for cross-tabular analyses. The findings show most relationships (61%) between social support and caregiver adjustment are not positively significant. Of the minority of positively significant relationships, neither perceived (available) nor received support is more important and neither instrumental nor socioemotional support is more likely to aid adjustment. Researchers and health care professionals need to explore the negative impact of social support and attributes of caregiver-care recipient relationships.

Involvement of Elders in Care-Related Decisions: A Black/White Comparison.

This research uses data from 244 family caregivers to examine racial differences in the composition of care-related decisionmaking networks. Analyses reveal blacks are significantly less likely to identify the older care recipient as involved or as the key decision maker when compared to whites. The older individuals physical and mental impairments are also important predictors of the involvement in decision making. Discussion addresses sensitivity to racial differences and elder cognitive capacity in assessing older individual decision-making involvement.