TY - JOUR T1 - Caregiver stressors and depressive symptoms among older husbands and wives in the United States. JF - J Women Aging Y1 - 2017 A1 - Kim, Min Hee A1 - Ruth E Dunkle A1 - Amanda J Lehning A1 - Shen, Huei-Wern A1 - Sheila Feld A1 - Angela K Perone KW - Activities of Daily Living KW - Aged KW - Caregivers KW - depression KW - Female KW - Humans KW - Independent Living KW - Longitudinal Studies KW - Male KW - Middle Aged KW - Multivariate Analysis KW - Prospective Studies KW - Regression Analysis KW - Sex Factors KW - Spouses KW - Stress, Psychological KW - United States AB -

Framed by Pearlin's Stress Process Model, this study prospectively examines the effects of primary stress factors reflecting the duration, amount, and type of care on the depressive symptoms of spousal caregivers over a2-year period, and whether the effects of stressors differ between husbands and wives. Data are from the 2004 and 2006 waves of the Health and Retirement Study and we included community-dwelling respondents providing activities of daily life (ADL) and/or instrumental activities of daily life (IADL) help to their spouses/partners (N = 774). Results from multivariate regression models indicate that none of the primary stressors were associated with depressive symptoms. However, wives providing only personal care had significantly more depressive symptoms than wives providing only instrumental care, while husbands providing different types of care showed no such differences. To illuminate strategies for reducing the higher distress experienced by wife caregivers engaged in personal care assistance, further studies are needed incorporating couples' relational dynamics and gendered experiences in personal care.

VL - 29 IS - 6 U1 - http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27673406?dopt=Abstract ER -