Caregiver well-being and formal support: assessing service utilization impacts and the embedded strain.
Objectives: We examine the association between formal support and caregiver well-being. The extant literature indicates that formal support often correlates with worse caregiver mental health outcomes. We tested whether timing of formal support use, rather than the services themselves explain prior...
| Publicado en: | Aging & Mental Health Vol. 30; no. 8; pp. 1930 - 1942 |
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| Autores principales: | , , |
| Formato: | Artículo |
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Taylor & Francis Ltd
Aug2026
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| Acceso en línea: | Ver este registro en EBSCOhost |
| fields | @attributes: recordID: 1 pdfLink: plink: https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=ssf&AN=196267185&site=ehost-live header: @attributes: shortDbName: ssf uiTerm: 196267185 longDbName: Social Sciences Full Text (H.W. Wilson) uiTag: AN controlInfo: bkinfo: jinfo: jid: 13607863 57E jtl: Aging & Mental Health issn: 13607863 maglogo: N pubinfo: dt: Aug2026 vid: 30 iid: 8 pid: 377 pub: Taylor & Francis Ltd artinfo: ui: 196267185 10.1080/13607863.2026.2624555 ppf: 1930 ppct: 12 formats: tig: atl: Caregiver well-being and formal support: assessing service utilization impacts and the embedded strain. aug: au: Svec, Joseph Meinertz, Naomi Lee, Jeongeun affil: Department of Social Sciences, Saint Joseph's University, Patchogue, NY, USA Department of Human Development and Family Science, Extension Health & Human Sciences, University of Missouri, Columbia, MO, USA Department of Human Development and Family Studies, Iowa State University, Ames, IA, USA su: Mental health Anxiety Psychology of caregivers Mental depression Employees' workload Research funding Services for caregivers Descriptive statistics Burden of care Surveys sug: subj: Mental health Anxiety Psychology of caregivers Mental depression Employees' workload Offices of Mental Health Practitioners (except Physicians) Research funding Services for caregivers Descriptive statistics Burden of care Surveys keyword: caregiver burnout and demand depression and anxiety Formal support selection bias timing of services caregiver burnout and demand depression and anxiety Formal support selection bias timing of services ab: Objectives: We examine the association between formal support and caregiver well-being. The extant literature indicates that formal support often correlates with worse caregiver mental health outcomes. We tested whether timing of formal support use, rather than the services themselves explain prior findings. Method: Using National Study of Caregivers data (NSOC 2015, 2017, & 2021), we analyzed the association between formal support utilization and caregiver mental health. We employed linear regression and Two-Stage Least Squares (N = 3,963) approach to address endogeneity and unobserved caregiver demand. Results: The results indicated positive or non-significant associations between formal support and mental health outcomes. However, formal support is negatively associated with depressive symptoms (β = −0.40) and generalized anxiety (β = −0.44) when instrumentalizing formal support as a function of caregiver demand for services. When strain on a caregiver is high (i.e. high overload, working, and high frequency caregiving activity), there is a higher propensity for utilizing formal support. Caregivers with high strain showed higher propensity for formal support utilization. Conclusion: The results highlight that underlying demand functions are important mental health predictors as the negative impacts of caregiver strain may limit the efficacy of formal support services. pubtype: Academic Journal doctype: Article src: R language: English refInfo: copyright: @attributes: flag: N holdings: @attributes: islocal: N |
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