Using data from the 2004 wave of the National Long-Term Care Survey, we examined how negative and positive caregiving experiences differ by caregivers’ gender and relationship to care recipients. We further considered how their caregiving experiences are affected by caregivers’ demographic characteristics, care recipients’ problem behavior and dependency, caregivers’ involvement, reciprocal help from care recipients, and social support available for caregivers. We found that female and adult-child caregivers, in general, reported having had more negative experiences than male and spouse caregivers, respectively. Wife caregivers were least likely to report positive experiences. We also found different risk factors for negative and positive caregiving experiences, and these factors varied depending on caregivers’ gender and relationship to the care recipient. The findings underscore the heterogeneity of caregiving experiences. To sustain informal care, state and local agencies need to tailor services to wife, husband, daughter, and son caregivers’ unique needs.

Research has documented the stigma of obesity extensively, but little attention has been given to the study of stigma toward formerly obese individuals. The present study examines whether the stigma of obesity in romantic relationships carries over to formerly obese individuals by using primary data collected from a Midwestern university in the United States (N = 363). We consider how an individual's own body weight, demographic characteristics, familiarity, and attitudes affect the willingness to form a romantic relationship with a formerly obese person. Results suggest that obese individuals are less likely to hesitate about engaging in a romantic relationship with a formerly obese person than underweight or normal weight individuals, but only when attitudes toward obese and formerly obese individuals are controlled. In terms of demographic characteristics, men and African Americans are more likely to hesitate about forming a romantic relationship than their respective counterparts. More familiarity with currently obese family members and formerly obese close friends appears to reduce the stigma minimally. Greater social distance is also desired if weight loss is believed to be temporary.The prevalence rate of obesity in the United States has increased over the past three decades (Flegal et al., 2010). Currently, nearly two of three adults in the United States are overweight with a body mass index (BMI) of 25 or greater, and one in three adults in the United States is obese (BMI ‡ 30). Although obesity is increasingly common in adulthood, obese individuals are often stigmatized and targets of discrimination (Puhl and Heuer 2009). The stigma and discrimination that obese individuals experience often has negative implications for the formation of romantic relationships (Chen and Brown 2005;Harris 1990).Research has extensively documented the consequences of obesity for the formation of romantic relationships (Chen and Brown 2005;Harris 1990;Sobal, Nicolopoulos, and Lee 1995). Obese individuals are less likely to date or marry compared to their thinner counterparts (Cawley et al., 2006;Sobal 2005). While research suggests that obesity plays an important part in the formation of romantic relationships, it is not well understood whether obese individuals who lose weight and no longer obese face the same stigma when finding a romantic partner. It is important to examine whether formerly obese individuals experience similar obstacles to the formation of romantic relationships as do obese individuals because romantic relationships have important implications for well-being (Waite and Gallagher 2000).The present study contributes to the understanding of the stigmatization of the formerly obese. This study used primary data collected from a Midwestern university in the United States to examine attitudes toward the formerly obese. In particular, we examined whether the stigma of obesity in the realm of romantic relationships persists for formerly obese individuals. Further, we considered how the hesitation to engage in a...

No abstract

No abstract