The influence of emotional awareness and expressiveness on care-giving burden and health complaints in women and men
- 95 Downloads
- 10 Citations
Abstract
This study was designed to investigate the role of emotional awareness and expressiveness as influences on the experience of burden and impaired health for women and men maintaining a spouse or relative at home who had been diagnosed as having dementia. One hundred and thirty-one Caucasian care givers, 41 males and 90 females, participated in the study. Multivariate analysis of variance indicated that women scored higher than men on measures of burden, health complaints, and awareness of others' emotions. Regression analysis indicated that self-awareness of emotions interacted with care-giver gender to decrease health complaints for female care givers but increased health complaints for male care givers. Self-awareness of emotions also increased feelings of burden for male care givers in general and for female care givers experiencing low levels of burden. Awareness of others' emotions tended to reduce feelings of burden. Emotional expressiveness did not influence burden or health complaint scores.
Keywords
Multivariate Analysis Dementia Regression Analysis Social Psychology Health ComplaintPreview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
References
- Aiken, L. S., & West, S. G. (1992).Multiple regression: Testing and interpreting interactions. Newbury Park, CA: Sage Publications.Google Scholar
- Allen, J. G., & Markiewicz Haccoun, D. M. (1976). Sex differences in emotionality: A multidimensional approach.Human Relations, 29 711–722.Google Scholar
- Balswick, J. O., & Peek, C. W. (1971). The inexpressive male: A tragedy of American society.The Family Coordinator, 20 363–368.Google Scholar
- Barusch, A. S., & Spaid, W. A. (1989). Gender differences in care-giving: Why do wives report greater burden?The Gerontologist, 29 667–676.PubMedGoogle Scholar
- Blier, M. J., & Blier-Wilson, L. A. (1989). Gender differences in self-rated emotional expressiveness.Sex Roles, 21 287–295.Google Scholar
- Brody, L. R. (1985). Gender differences in emotional development: A review of theories and research.Journal of Personality, 53 102–149.Google Scholar
- Dosser, D. A., Balswick, J. O., & Halverson, Jr., C. F. (1986). Male inexpressiveness and relationships.Journal of Social and Personal Relationships, 3 241–258.Google Scholar
- Folstein, M. F., Folstein, S. E., & McHugh, P. R. (1975). Mini-mental state: A practical guide for grading the cognitive state of patients for the clinician.Journal of Psychiatric Research, 12 189–198.PubMedGoogle Scholar
- Ganong, L. H., & Coleman, M. (1985). Sex, sex roles, and emotional expressiveness.The Journal of Genetic Psychology, 146 405–411.Google Scholar
- Gilhooly, M. L. M. (1984). The impact of care-giving on care-givers: Factors associated with the psychological well-being of people supporting a dementing relative in the community.British Journal of Medical Psychology, 57 35–44.PubMedGoogle Scholar
- Gilleard, C. J., Belford, H., Gilleard, E., Whittick, J. E., & Gledhill, K. (1984). Emotional distress amongst the supporters of the elderly mentally infirm.British Journal of Psychiatry, 145 172–171.PubMedGoogle Scholar
- Gold, D. P., Cohen, C., Shulman, K., Zucchero, C., Andres, D., & Etezadi, J. Care-giving and dementia: Predicting negative and positive outcomes for care givers.The International Journal of Aging & Human Development, in press.Google Scholar
- Goldberg, D. P. (1978).Manual of the General Health Questionnaire. Windsor: Nelson Publishing Company.Google Scholar
- Goldberg, D. P., & Hillier, V. F. (1979). A scaled version of the general health questionnaire.Psychological Medicine, 9 139–145.PubMedGoogle Scholar
- Hamel, M., Gold, D. P., Andres, D., Reis, M., Dastoor, D., Grauer, H., & Bergman, H. (1990). Predictors and consequences of aggressive behavior by community-based dementia patients.The Gerontologist, 30 206–211.PubMedGoogle Scholar
- Hammen, C. L., & Padesky, C. A. (1977). Sex differences in the expression of depressive responses on the Beck Depression Inventory.Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 86 609–614.PubMedGoogle Scholar
- Hammen, C. L., & Peters, S. D. (1977). Differential responses to male and female depressive reactions.Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 45 994–1001.PubMedGoogle Scholar
- Helmreich, R. L., Spence, J. T., & Wilhelm, J. A. (1981). A psychometric analysis of the Personal Attributes Questionnaire.Sex Roles, 7 1097–1108.Google Scholar
- Hoffman-Graff, M. A. (1977). Interviewer use of positive and negative self-disclosure and interviewer-subject sex pairing.Journal of Counselling Psychology, 24 184–190.Google Scholar
- Hoffman, M. A., & Spencer G. P. (1977). Effect of interviewer self-disclosure and interviewer-subject sex pairing on perceived and actual subject behavior.Journal of Counselling Psychology, 24 383–390.Google Scholar
- Jordan, J. V., Surrey, J. L., & Kaplan, A. G. (1991). Women and empathy: Implications for psychological development and psychotherapy. In J. V. Jordan, A. G. Kaplan, J. Baker Miller, I. P. Stiver, & J. L. Surrey (Eds.),Women's growth in connection: Writings from the Stone Center. New York: The Guilford Press.Google Scholar
- Keinke, C. L., Staneski, R. A., & Mason, J. R. (1982). Sex differences in coping with depression.Sex Roles, 8 877–889.Google Scholar
- Lane, R. D., Quinlan, D. M., Schwartz, G. E., Walker, P. A., & Zeitlin, S. B. (1990). The Levels of Emotional Awareness Scale: A cognitive-developmental measure of emotion.Journal of Personality Assessment, 55 124–134.PubMedGoogle Scholar
- Lane, R. D., & Schwartz, G. E. (1987). Levels of emotional awareness: A cognitive-developmental theory and its application to psychopathology.American Journal of Psychiatry, 144 133–143.PubMedGoogle Scholar
- Malatesta-Magai, C., Jonas, R., Shepherd, B., & Culver, L. C. (1992). Type A behavior pattern and emotion expression in younger and older adults.Psychology and Aging, 7 551–561.PubMedGoogle Scholar
- McCreary, D. (1990). Self-perceptions of life-span gender-role development.International Journal of Aging and Human Development, 31 135–146.PubMedGoogle Scholar
- Miller, B., & Cafasso, L. (1992). Gender differing in care-giving: Factor artifact.American Journal of Psychiatry, 32 498–507.Google Scholar
- Narus, L. R., & Fisher, J. L. (1982). Strong but not silent: A re-examination of expressivity in the relationships of men.Sex Roles, 8 159–168.Google Scholar
- Notarius, C. I., & Johnson, J. (1982). Emotional expression in husbands and wives.Journal of Marriage and the Family, 44 483–489.Google Scholar
- Padesky, C. A., & Hammen, C. L. (1981). Sex differences in depressive symptom expression and help-seeking among college students.Sex Roles, 7 309–320.Google Scholar
- Poulshock, S. W., & Deimling, G. T. (1984). Families caring for elders in residence: Issues in the measurement of burden.Journal of Gerontology, 39 230–239.PubMedGoogle Scholar
- Prather, J., & Fiddell, L. (1975). Sex differences in the content and style of medical advertisements.Social Science and Medicine, 9 23–26.Google Scholar
- Pruchno, R. A., Kleban, M. H., Michaels, J. E., & Dempsey, N. P. (1990). Mental and physical health of care-giving spouses: Development of a causal model.Journal of Gerontology, 45 192–199.Google Scholar
- Ryden, M. (1988a). Aggressive behavior in persons with dementia living in the community.The Alzheimer Disease and Associated Disorders: International Journal, 2 342–355.Google Scholar
- Ryden, M. (1988b). Aggressive behavior in cognitively impaired nursing home residents. Paper presented at the Annual Scientific Meeting of the Gerontological Society of America, San Francisco.Google Scholar
- Snell, W. E., Jr., Miller, R. S., & Belk, S. S. (1988). Development of the Emotional Self-Disclosure Scale.Sex Roles, 18 59–73.Google Scholar
- Spence, J. T., & Helmreich, R. L. (1978).Masculinity and femininity: Their psychological dimensions, correlates, and antecedents. Austin: University of Texas Press.Google Scholar
- Spence, J. T., Helmreich, R., & Stapp, J. (1974). The personal attributes questionnaire: A measure of sex role stereotypes and masculinity-femininity.Journal Supplement Abstract Service Catalogue of Selected Documents in Psychology, 4 43 (Ms. No. 617).Google Scholar
- Spence, J. T., Helmreich, R., & Stapp, J. (1975). Ratings of self and peers on sex role attributes and their relation to self-esteem and conceptions of masculinity and femininity.Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 32 29–39.PubMedGoogle Scholar
- Verbrugge, L. (1985). Gender and health: An update on hypotheses and evidence.Journal of Health and Social Behavior, 26 156–182.PubMedGoogle Scholar
- Vitaliano, P., Young, H., & Russo, J. (1991). Burden: A review of measures used among care givers of individuals with dementia.The Gerontologist, 31 67–75.PubMedGoogle Scholar
- Young, R. F., & Kahana, E. (1989). Specifying care giver outcomes: Gender and relationship aspects of care-giving strain.The Gerontologist, 29 660–666.PubMedGoogle Scholar
- Zarit, J. M. (1983).Predictors of burden and distress for care givers of senile dementia patients. (Doctoral dissertation, University of Southern California.)Dissertation Abstracts International, 43 892.Google Scholar
- Zarit, S. H., Orr, N. K., & Zarit, J. M. (1985).The hidden victims of Alzheimer's disease. New York: New York University Press.Google Scholar
- Zarit, S. H., Todd, P. A., & Zarit, J. M. (1986). Subjective burden of husbands and wives as care givers: A longitudinal study.The Gerontologist, 26 260–266.PubMedGoogle Scholar