Year: 2009
Type: article
Abstract: Alzheimer's Disease (AD) and other dementias are one of the most critical public health problems in elderly populations. Whereas the financial, emotional and physical costs of the disease for the caregiver are enormous, support for the caregiver becomes more and more important. One aspect of caregiver support, however, religious coping and well-being in caregivers of AD has been relatively unexplored. Using baseline data from the Resources for Enhancing Alzheimer's Caregiver Health (REACH) II study, this study examined the relationship between religious coping, burden, depression and race among 211 African-American, 220 White and 211 Hispanic caregivers. Structural Equation Modeling was used to test our path model and Multi-sample SEM was used for a test of moderating effect of race. Caregiver burden mediated the effect of religious coping on depression with higher religious coping resulting in lowering caregiver burden and thereby reducing depression. The only path that was not predicted and had to be added to the model was between religious attendance and depression. While the overall MSEM test was not significant, separate analyses showed some variations in relationships among groups. The religious coping mediation model was better supported by African Americans than Hispanic and White caregivers. The findings suggest that religiosity plays an important role in decreasing caregiver burden and thereby decreasing depression. The findings also suggest that it may be culturally sensitive and appropriate to encourage African American caregivers to utilize religious coping resources. Greater understanding of religious coping and its role in the caregiving process helps researchers discover better ways to assist racially diverse caregivers in dealing with burdens of AD caregiving.
Author: Grace Jeongim Heo
Language: English
Subfield: Health
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W1494307367