"Caregivers who do less report worse well-being" - Futurity. 01/24/2019
"Older caregivers report worse well-being when providing minimal assistance" - EurekAlert!. 01/22/2019
"A surprising finding about family caregivers" - McKnight's Senior Living. 02/04/2019
Caregivers 60 and older who provide “marginal” assistance–spending up to an hour helping often with just one activity–report worse well-being than those who help two hours a day handling various activities, according to Vicki Freedman, research professor at the U-M Institute for Social Research.
Freedman and colleagues said the finding is counterintuitive to well-established thinking that caring for more hours poses a greater psychological burden on family and other unpaid caregivers.
“It may be that these marginally involved caregivers find it harder to incorporate care into their busy lives,” Freedman said. “Or it could be those with worse well-being are less able to take on a more substantial caregiving role.”
Related Resources
Time Use and Experienced Wellbeing of Older Caregivers: A Sequence Analysis (abstract)