The caregiver reaction assessment (CRA) for caregivers to persons with chronic physical and mental impairments

TLDR

The study develops and validates a 40‑item multidimensional instrument to assess reactions of family caregivers of elderly patients with physical impairments, Alzheimer’s disease, or cancer. The instrument was evaluated with 377 caregivers using exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses, testing factorial invariance across caregiver type, disease, and over three waves. Five reaction dimensions were identified, and the subscales demonstrated strong factorial invariance and construct validity across caregiver and disease groups and over time.

Abstract

Abstract The development and testing of a multidimensional instrument to assess the reactions of family members caring for elderly persons with physical impairments, Alzheimer's disease, and cancer is reported. Forty items were administered to a sample of 377 caregivers of persons with physical impairments and Alzheimer's disease. Five dimensions of caregivers' reactions were identified through exploratory factor analysis. Using confirmatory factor analysis on an independent sample ( N = 377), these dimensions were tested for factorial invariance across spouse and nonspouse caregivers and between caregivers of persons with cancer and those caring for persons with Alzheimer's disease. The subscales also had a high level of factorial invariance across a three‐wave panel study ( N = 185). The subscales appeared consistent with first order tests of construct validity.