Caregiving as a Dyadic Process

Abstract

Most family caregiving research has relied on the perspective of the caregiver but has not systematically examined the views and opinions of the elder who is receiving care. The present study examined 63 caregiving dyads to determine how the responses of each member had an impact on the well-being of the other member of the dyad. Caregiver relationship strain predicted his or her own depression and negative health, but no significant association was found between caregiver and care recipient outcomes. Multilevel modeling was used to assess the level of dyadic discrepancy over the care recipient’s needs and appraisal of caregiving difficulties. Results indicate that there is little disagreement over the care recipient’s needs, but a significant amount of variation in how much the care recipient and caregiver agree on their appraisals of caregiving difficulties. Relationship strain perceived by the caregiver, but not the care recipient, was significantly associated with this disagreement.