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Influence of personality on caregiver's burden, depression and distress related to the BPSD
Author(s) -
Melo Graça,
Maroco João,
de Mendonça Alexandre
Publication year - 2011
Publication title -
international journal of geriatric psychiatry
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.28
H-Index - 129
eISSN - 1099-1166
pISSN - 0885-6230
DOI - 10.1002/gps.2677
Subject(s) - neuroticism , caregiver burden , extraversion and introversion , personality , distress , psychology , dementia , clinical psychology , agreeableness , big five personality traits , depression (economics) , psychiatry , medicine , disease , social psychology , macroeconomics , pathology , economics
Objective We hypothesize that the personality influences the caregiver's depression, burden and distress related to BPSD. Subjects and methods Participants were 105 consecutive patients with dementia and their family caregivers, living at home, attending a Dementia Clinic. A cross‐sectional design was used with an applied a structured interview at home. Comprehensive assessments included: personality (NEO‐FFI), burden (ZBI), depression (CES‐D) and distress related to BPSD (NPI‐distress). Statistical Path analysis was used to study the hypothetical causal and mediating effects between independent and criterion variables. Results Neuroticism increased, whereas extraversion decreased, both caregiver's depression and burden. Agreeableness was also found to decrease the burden. The personality characteristics only indirectly influenced the caregiver's distress related to BPSD. Conclusion These results reinforce the importance of including personality as an individual resource of the caregiver in the conceptual models and research on caregiving. Assessment of caregiver's personality characteristics should be taken into account for the planning of intervention programs. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.