Perceived Benefits of Caregiving

Description of Measure: While caregiving is often highly stressful, many caregivers report that caring for a loved one has positive aspects. Caregivers may report that caregiving gives their lives meaning, produces pride in their successes as caregivers, and is gratifying in allowing them to give back to someone else. Folkman & Moskovitz (2000) have noted that benefit-finding can be an important way of coping with stress, contributing to “meaning-based coping”, and not just adopting “rose-colored glasses.” The Perceived Benefits of Caregiving Scale includes 11 items, and was developed by Beach, Schulz, Yee, & Jackson (2000). Response options that have been used include a Yes/No format, and a 5-point Agree/Disagree scale. Alpha coefficients of over .7 have been reported for both formats of the scale. Items ask caregivers whether their experiences as caregivers have, for example, “given more meaning to your life” and “made you feel important.”

A study by Haley et al. (2009) found that many stroke caregivers experienced positive aspects of caregiving, with over 90% reporting that caregiving enabled them to appreciate life more. Perceived benefits of caregiving have been found to be associated with improved caregiver adaptation during dementia caregiving, end-of-life caregiving (Haley et al., 2003). One study of dementia caregivers found that finding benefits from caregiving predicted a better response to a caregiver intervention over a 12-month period (Hilgeman, Allen, DeCoster, & Burgio, 2007).

Using cognitive reappraisal to find benefits of caregiving has been used in intervention to decrease depressive symptoms and burden and increase psychological well-being in caregivers (Chen et al., 2017). Evaluation of the intervention showed that caregivers in the treatment group reported lower depressive symptoms and less role overload compared to caregivers in the treatment as usual groups. Some of these effects were mediated by self-efficacy in controlling upsetting thoughts.

Importantly, positive and negative effects of caregiving are not mutually exclusive; rather, caregivers can and do experience both simultaneously.

References

Beach, S. R., Schulz, J. L., Yee, J. L., & Jackson, S. (2000). Negative and positive health effects of caring for a disabled spouse: longitudinal findings from the Caregiver Health Effects Study. Psychology and Aging, 15, 42–53.

Cheng, S. T., Mak, E. P. M., Fund, H. H., Kwok, T., Lee, D. T. F., & Lam, L. C. W. (2017). Benefit-finding and effect on caregiver depression: A double-blind randomized controlled trial. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 85(5), 521-529. doi:10.1037/ccp0000176

Folkman, S., & Moskowitz, J. T. (2000). Positive affect and the other side of coping. American Psychologist, 55, 647-654.

Haley, W. E., Allen, J. Y., Grant, J. S., Clay, O. J., Perkins, M., & Roth, D. L. (2009). Problems and benefits reported by stroke family caregivers: Results from a prospective epidemiological study. Stroke, 40(6), 2129-2133. doi:10.1161/STROKEAHA.108.545269

Haley, W. E., LaMonde, L.A., Han, B., Burton, A.M., & Schonwetter, R. (2003). Predictors of depression and life satisfaction among spousal caregivers in hospice: Application of a stress process model. Journal of Palliative Medicine, 6, 215-224.

Hilgeman, M. M., Allen, R. S., DeCoster, J., & Burgio, L.D. (2007). Positive aspects of caregiving as a moderator of treatment outcome over 12 months. Psychology and Aging, 22, 361–371.