Validation of the Guilt associated with Self-Perception as a Burden Scale (G-SPBS)

Abstract

Background: One of the main health-related worries for older adults is becoming dependent. Even healthy older adults may worry about becoming dependent, generating guilt feelings due to the anticipation of future needs that others must solve. The guilt associated with self-perception as a burden has not been studied in older adults, and there is no instrument available to measure these feelings. Aims: To adapt the Self-Perceived Burden Scale (SPBS; Cousineau et al., 2003) for the assessment of feelings of guilt for perceiving oneself as a burden for the family in older adults without explicit functional or cognitive impairment. Method: Participants were 298 older adults living independently in the community. Participants completed the assessment protocol, which included measures of guilt associated with self-perception as a burden, depressive and anxious symptomatology, self-perceived burden, and sociodemographic information. Results: Results from exploratory, parallel and confirmatory factor analyses suggest that the scale, named Guilt associated with Self-Perception as a Burden Scale (G-SPBS), has a unidimensional structure, explaining 57.04% of the variance of guilt. Good reliability was found (Cronbach’s alpha = .94). The results revealed significant (p < .01) positive associations with depressive and anxious symptomatology. Discussion: These findings suggest that the G-SPBS shows good psychometric properties which endorse its use with healthy community older adults. Also, guilt associated with perceiving oneself as a burden seems to be a relevant variable that can contribute to improving our understanding of psychological distress in older adults.

Effects of Nursing Intervention Based on Health Belief Model on Self‐Perceived Burden, Drug Compliance, and Quality of Life of Renal Transplant Recipients

“…The SPBS, which was developed by Pedroso-Chaparro et al in 2003, was employed to measure the SPBS score of patients with chronic diseases [ 11 ]. The Chinese version of the scale was employed in this study, and Cronbach's α coefficient was 0.910.…”

Comorbid Depressive and Anxiety Symptomatology in Older Adults: The Role of Aging Self-Stereotypes, Loneliness, and Feelings of Guilt Associated with Self-Perception as a Burden

“…All participants provided written informed consent to being studied and answer the assessment protocol at their centers of reference. The sample used in this study is partially shared with the study carried out by Pedroso-Chaparro et al (2021). The Ethics Committee of the Rey Juan Carlos University approved the study protocol.…”

“…Finally, being a burden to others is such a common concern for older adults (Miller et al, 2016;Peek et al, 2016) that it has been linked to feelings of guilt (e.g., Bigger & Vo, 2022). Also, previous studies found that feeling of guilt associated with selfperception as a burden, defined as the distress related to "the perception of being responsible for other relatives' difficulties associated with an anticipated experience of care" (Pedroso-Chaparro et al, 2021;p. 192), were associated with distress in older adults (Pedroso-Chaparro et al, 2021).…”

Self-perceived Burden

“…In this analysis, the antecedents of SPB were based on demographics, circumstances, diagnoses, symptoms, prognosis, comorbidities, and knowledge and beliefs. Demographic antecedents included culture and age, 13,[21][22][23][24][25][26] gender identity, 26,27 income, 25,26 education level, 9,26 and marital status. 25 Cultural antecedents included race/ethnicity.…”

“…40 Existential consequences included diminished quality of life. 5,6,9,25 The psychological consequences included stress and guilt, 13,24 anxiety and depression, 25,35 a wish to die and suicidality, 36,37 and lower resilience and decreased posttraumatic growth. 7 For example, the main effects of SPB were sometimes so debilitating that negative psychological consequences (suicidality) and new diagnoses (depression) resulted in varying degrees.…”