Psychometric Properties of the Finding a Balance Scale for Family Caregivers of Elders with Dementia in Taiwan

Abstract

The Finding a Balance Scale, designed to measure the degree to which caregivers can balance the competing demands of caregiving and other priorities, assists health care providers in understanding the process of family caregiving. The aim of this study was to examine the scale's psychometric properties and determine an appropriate cutoff score for identifying caregivers at high risk for poor caregiving consequences. We found adequate reliabilities and appropriate validities in a convenience sample of 197 family caregivers of elders with dementia in Taiwan. The optimal cutoff was also determined. The validated Finding a Balance Scale provides an assessment tool to explore the competing responsibilities, conditions, and difficulties for family caregivers of elders with dementia in Taiwan.

Balancing competing needs mediates the association of caregiving demand with caregiver role strain and depressive symptoms of dementia caregivers: A cross‐sectional study

“…Early interventions are suggested for family caregivers who have a poor sense of balance between competing needs and are at risk for depression. Such caregivers can be identified by administering the Finding a Balance Scale (Liu et al., ), where a score of <2 suggests that the caregiver meets these criteria. In our sample of 120 family caregivers, 25 (20.8%) had Finding a Balance Scale scores under the cutoff of 2.…”

“…Caregivers’ balance, or the degree to which they can simultaneously handle competing caregiving needs, was assessed using the 18‐item Chinese‐version Finding a Balance Scale (Liu et al., ; Shyu, ). Caregivers report how well they are currently addressing each of 17 competing scale items (e.g.…”

“…The mediating effect of balance on the association between caregiving demand and caregivers’ role strain/depressive symptoms was examined using well‐established instruments. The Finding a Balance Scale's psychometric properties were shown to be adequate for family caregivers of older people with dementia in Taiwan (Liu et al., ). In this study, Cronbach's alpha for the balance scale was 0.87.…”

“…These include other family needs (e.g. children's needs), facing inconsistent caregiving due to multiple caregivers, or caregivers’ own needs regarding health, work and/or social activities (Liu et al., ; Shyu, ). Balancing competing needs reflects the effort to maintain equilibrium between the caregiver's and care receiver's competing needs in daily life (Shyu, Archbold, & Imle, ).…”

Taiwanese Stories of Dementia

“…Dementia 失智症 has become a pressing issue in Taiwan as its society ages (Liu et al, 2014; Sun et al, 2014). 1 Governments are burdened by an emerging demand for quality health services to cater for an ever-increasing number of dementia sufferers.…”