The relationship between caregiving self-efficacy and depressive symptoms in dementia family caregivers

Abstract

The present study was intended to replicate the findings of Steffen et al. (2002 Steffen, AM, McKibbin, C, Zeiss, AM, Gallagher-Thompson, D and Bandura, A. 2002. The revised scale for caregiving self-efficacy: Reliability and validity studies. Journals of Gerontology: Psychological Sciences, 57: 74–86. [Crossref] , [Google Scholar]) of a negative relationship between caregiving self-efficacy and depressive symptoms among family dementia caregivers. Female family caregivers (N = 74) of community-dwelling individuals diagnosed with dementia completed a telephone interview and self-report assessment packet that included measures of caregiving self-efficacy and depressive symptoms. There was a direct negative relationship between caregiving self-efficacy and depressive symptoms after controlling for objective stressors. There was no support, however, for the hypothesis that caregiving self-efficacy would operate as a moderator, such that the relationship between objective stressors (cognitive impairment and behavior problems) and caregivers’ depressive symptoms would be strongest for caregivers reporting lower levels of self-efficacy. The results of this study suggest that caregiving self-efficacy has a strong, direct relationship with depressed symptoms for dementia family caregivers. Longitudinal research is needed to determine if it is an appropriate focus of future intervention research.