Religiosity and the expansion of caregiver stress

Abstract

We present a stress process framework as a model for understanding how religiosity may influence the expansion of stress. Survey data from informal caregivers to a spouse with Alzheimer's disease or a related dementia (n = 200) were analyzed to observe the relationships among three variables: (1) care-related stress, (2) religiosity, and (3) depression. This sample, which has a mean age of 73 years, demonstrates high rates of self-described religiosity, church attendance and frequency of prayer. Using these criteria, women and racial/ethnic minority caregivers are the most religious. In a series of multivariate analyses, we found strong evidence to suggest that there is an expansion of care-related stressors leading to depression in this sample. Religiosity, as measured here, appears to be largely unrelated to stress and stress expansion. We found no evidence to suggest that it moderates stress expansion. However, these data do suggest that one stressor--feelings of role overload--is correlated with greater levels of self-perceived religiosity, which among caregivers who have health problems of their own is associated with greater depressive symptomatology. Thus, for a sub-sample of these caregivers, we find weak evidence of a mediation effect wherein one subjective, non-organizational dimension of religiosity is a conduit of the harmful effects of stress (rather than a suppressor). Results and data limitations are discussed in relation to better assessing the role of religiosity and spirituality in the experience of the stress process.

Too Much of a Good Thing?: Positive Religious Coping Predicts Worse Diurnal Salivary Cortisol Patterns for Overwhelmed African American Female Dementia Family Caregivers

“…For instance, recent evidence shows that more religious non-White caregivers have better mental health, subjective well-being, and more positive attitudes toward the caregiver role (16, 18, 20, 21). RCOPE may be especially healthy for ADRD caregivers in the context of poor care recipient functional status (22).…”

“…Thus, ADRD caregiver status challenges coping resources, and consequently may be a risk factor for chronic physical disorders for AAs who persevere in the caregiver role (3, 4, 30). One preventive resource for the deleterious health effects of caregiver stress may be RCOPE (16, 18). However, there is no published study examining the relationship between RCOPE and HPA axis profiles for diverse ADRD caregivers with more challenging care recipients.…”

Stress in caregivers of demented people in Korea—a modification of Pearlin and colleagues' stress model

“…In particular, shorter and clearer forms, in which only caregiver characteristics, objective stressors, subjective stressors, and outcome are included, have been developed (Gaugler et al, 2000;Gaugler et al, 2003), and some studies expanded this model to consider other variables such as religiosity (LeBlanc et al, 2004).…”

Can Faith Protect From Emotional Distress After Stroke?

“…19 Although religiosity appeared to be unrelated to stress among caregivers of patients with dementia, one stressor, namely feelings of role overload, was correlated with greater levels of selfperceived religiosity. 20 Spirituality positively influenced recovery after acute myocardial infarction and improved survival in women with breast cancer. 21,22 People who attended church once per week presented a 32% reduction in the risk of mortality as compared with those who never attended religious services.…”