Abstract
The current study aimed to explore the relationship between social support and the mental health of caregivers in nursing homes, as well as the moderating effect of general self-efficacy and the mediating effect of psychological resilience. A total of 398 caregivers were randomly selected from twelve nursing homes in China, and questionnaires concerning social support, general self-efficacy, psychological resilience and mental health were done. The results showed that: (1) social support significantly predicted the mental health of caregivers in nursing homes; (2) general self-efficacy moderated the relationship between social support and the mental health of caregivers in nursing homes; and (3) psychological resilience completely mediated the moderating effects of general self-efficacy on the relationship between social support and the mental health of caregivers in nursing homes. The findings of the current study indicated that enhancing the general self-efficacy and the psychological resilience of caregivers in nursing homes could effectively maintain their mental health. Finally, the theoretical contribution and practical significance of the current study were discussed.
Similar content being viewed by others
Notes
Source of reference: http://www.stats.gov.cn/
References
Alexandrinosilva, C., Alves, T. F., Tófoli, L. F., Wang, Y. P., & Andrade, L. H. (2011). Psychiatry-life events and social support in late life depression. Clinics, 66(2), 233–238. https://doi.org/10.1590/S1807-59322011000200009.
Armstrong, A. R., Galligan, R. F., & Critchley, C. R. (2011). Emotional intelligence and psychological resilience to negative life events. Personality and Individual Differences, 51(3), 331–336. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2011.03.025.
Cesari, M., Prince, M., Thiyagarajan, J. A., De Carvalho, I. A., Bernabei, R., & Chan, P. (2016). Frailty: An emerging public health priority. Journal of the American Medical Directors Association, 17(3), 188–192. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jamda.2015.12.016.
Chang, J. L., Dong, Y. Y., & Huang, J. Y. (2015). A study on the status and influencing factors of nursing services in Ningbo nursing homes. Nursing Research of China, 29(15), 1858–1860. https://doi.org/10.3969/j.issn.10096493.2015.015.020.
Cheng, T. A., Wu, J. T., Chong, M. Y., & Williams, P. (2010). Internal consistency and. Factor structure of the Chinese health questionnaire. Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica, 82, 304–308. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1600-0447.1990.tb01389.x.
Connor, K. M., & Davidson, J. R. T. (2003). Development of a new resilience scale: The Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale (CD-RISC). Depression and Anxiety, 18(2), 76–82. https://doi.org/10.1002/da.10113.
Courtin, E., & Knapp, M. (2017). Social isolation, loneliness and health in old age: A scoping review. Health and Social Care in the Community, 25(3), 799–812. https://doi.org/10.1111/hsc.12311.
Cullen, M. A. (1994). “Weighing it up”: A case study of discontinuing access students. Scotland: Edinburgh University Centre for Continuing Education.
Dark-Freudeman, A., Greskovich, L., & Terry, C. (2015). The relationship between attachment style, depressive symptoms, and social support: A survey of caregivers. Educational Gerontology, 42(2), 89–99. https://doi.org/10.1080/03601277.2015.1078677.
Dclinpsy, L. R., Croot, K., Maccann, C., Cramer, B., & Diehl-Schmid, J. (2015). The role of coping strategies in psychological outcomes for frontotemporal dementia caregivers. Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry and Neurology, 28(3), 218–228. https://doi.org/10.1177/0891988715588830.
Dreyer, J., & Schwartz-Attias, I. (2014). Nursing care for adolescents and young adults with cancer: Literature review. Acta Haematologica, 132(3–4), 363–374. https://doi.org/10.1159/000360213.
Engelberg, E. (2007). The perceptions of self-efficacy in coping with economic risks among young adults: An application of psychological theory and research. International Journal of Consumer Psychology, 31(1), 95–101. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1470-6431.2005.00494.x.
Fiske, S. T., Cuddy, A. J. C., & Glick, P. (2007). Universal dimensions of social cognition: Warmth, then competence. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 11(2), 77–83. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tics.2006.11.005.
Goldberg, D. P., & Hillier, V. F. (1979). A scaled version of the general health questionnaire. Psychological Medicine, 9(1), 139–145. https://doi.org/10.1017/s0033291700021644.
Hayes, A. (2013). Introduction to mediation, moderation, and conditional process analysis. Journal of Educational Measurement, 51(3), 335–337. https://doi.org/10.1111/jedm.12050.
Hu, L. T., & Bentler, P. M. (1999). Cutoff criteria for fit indexes incovariance structure analysis: Conventional criteria versus new alternatives. Structural Equation Modeling: A Multidisciplinary Journal, 6(1), 1–55. https://doi.org/10.1080/10705519909540118.
Lakey, B., Vander Molen, R. J., Fles, E., & Andrews, J. (2015). Ordinary social interaction and the main effect between perceived support and affect. Journal of Personality, 84(5), 671–684. https://doi.org/10.1111/jopy.12190.
Lawton, M. P., Moss, M., Kleban, M. H., Glicksman, A., & Rovine, M. (1991). A two-factor model of caregiving appraisal and psychological well-being. The Journal of Gerontology, 46, P181–P189. https://doi.org/10.1093/geronj/46.4.p181.
Lee, G. R., & Coward, N. R. T. (1994). Filial responsibility expectations and patterns of intergenerational assistance. Journal of Marriage and Family, 56(3), 559–565. https://doi.org/10.2307/352867.
Liu, S. R. (2007). Investigation on psychologically healthy condition of nurse-workers in old age recover center. Journal of Nursing Science, 22(15), 52–53. https://doi.org/10.3969/j.issn.1001-4152.2007.15.028.
López-Martínez, C., Serrano-Ortega, N., Moreno-Cámara, S., & del-Pino-Casado, R. (2019). Association between sense of coherence associated with mental health in caregivers of older adults. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 16(20), 3800. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph16203800.
Macneil, G., Kosberg, J. I., Durkin, D. W., Dooley, W. K., Decoster, J., & Williamson, G. M. (2010). Caregiver mental health and potentially harmful caregiving behavior: The central role of caregiver anger. The Gerontologist, 50(1), 76–86. https://doi.org/10.1093/geront/gnp099.
Miller, D. R., Bandura, A., & Walters, R. H. (1966). Social learning and personality development. American Sociological Review, 31(1), 128–130. https://doi.org/10.2307/2091312.
Nie, G. H., Wu, J. D., Tang, Z. H., Wei, B., & Yang, L. (2014). Workplace bullying and nurses’ mental health: The role of general self-efficacy. Chinese Journal of Clinical Psychology, 22(5), 901–903 [In Chinese].
Pinquart, M., & Sörensen, S. (2003). Differences between caregivers and noncaregivers in psychological health and physical health: A meta-analysis. Psychology and Aging, 18(2), 250–267. https://doi.org/10.1037/0882-7974.18.2.250.
Podsakoff, P. M., Mackenzie, S. B., Lee, J. Y., & Podsakoff, N. P. (2003). Common method biases in behavioral research: A critical review of the literature and recommended remedies. Journal of Applied Psychology, 88(5), 879–903. https://doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.88.5.879.
Rahman, A., Anjum, R., & Sahakian, Y. (2019). Impact of caregiving for dementia patients on healthcare utilization of caregivers. Pharmacy, 7(4), 138. https://doi.org/10.3390/pharmacy7040138.
Richard, S., Mendelsohn, A. B., Haley, W. E., Diane, M., Allen, R. S., Song, Z., et al. (2004). End-of-life care and the effects of bereavement on family caregivers of persons with dementia. Current Medical Literature: Psychiatry, 349(20), 1936–1942. https://doi.org/10.1056/NEJMsa035373.
Richardson, G. E. (2010). The metatheory of resilience and resiliency. Journal of Clinical Psychology, 58(3), 307–321. https://doi.org/10.1002/jclp.10020.
Schwarzer, R., Bäßler, J., Kwiatek, P., Schröder, K., & Zhang, J. X. (1997). The assessment of optimistic self-beliefs: Comparison of the German, Spanish, and Chinese versions of the general self-efficacy scale. Applied Psychology, 46(1), 69–88. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1464-0597.1997.tb01096.x.
Smith, G. R., Williamson, G. M., Miller, L. S., & Schulz, R. (2011). Depression and quality of informal care: A longitudinal investigation of caregiving stressors. Psychology and Aging, 26(3), 584–591. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0022263.
Tugade, M. M., Fredrickson, B. L., & Barrett, L. F. (2005). Psychological resilience and positive emotional granularity: Examining the benefits of positive emotions on coping and health. Journal of Personality, 72(6), 1161–1190. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-6494.2004.00294.x.
Ungar, M. (2011). The social ecology of resilience: Addressing contextual and cultural ambiguity of a nascent construct. American Journal of Orthopsychiatry, 81(1), 1–17. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1939-0025.2010.01067.x.
Van Abbema, R., Bielderman, A., De Greef, M., Hobbelen, H., Krijnen, W., & Cees, V. D. S. (2015). Building from a conceptual model of the resilience process during ageing, towards the Groningen aging resilience inventory. Journal of Advanced Nursing, 71(9), 2208–2219. https://doi.org/10.1111/jan.12685.
Verkaik, R., Mistiaen, P., van Meijel, B., & Francke, A. L. (2015). The effectiveness of interventions in supporting self-management of informal caregivers of people with dementia: A systematic meta review. BMC Geriatrics, 15(1), 147. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12877-015-0145-6.
Wang, Y. Y., & Zhang, L. (2018). How psychological resilience influence employees’ creativity: The role of psychological safety and creative self-efficacy. Journal of Psychological Science, 41(1), 118–124 [In Chinese].
Wang, C. K., Hu, Z. F., & Liu, Y. (2001). Evidences for reliability and validity of the Chinese version of general self-efficacy scale. Chinese Journal of Applied Psychology, 7(1), 37–40 [In Chinese].
Wang, X. R., Robinson, K. M., & Carter-Harris, L. (2014). Prevalence of chronic illnesses and characteristics of chronically ill informal caregivers of persons with dementia. Age and Ageing, 43(1), 137–141. https://doi.org/10.1093/ageing/aft142.
Wang, Y. Y., Wang, H. J., & Wang, X. C. (2015). Perceived insider status and employee innovative behaviors: The mediating role of creative self-efficacy and the moderating role of respect for authority. Journal of Psychological Science, 38(4), 954–959 [In Chinese].
Wang, F., Ye, G. Y., Xu, P., Shen, K. Z., & Zhao, C. Y. (2018). Status and demands of training for the nursing care workers in Ningbo nursing institutions. Chinese Journal of Gerontology, 38(18), 208–210 [In Chinese].
Wen, Z. L., Zhang, L., & Hou, J. T. (2006). Mediated moderator and moderated mediator. Acta Psychologica Sinica, 38(3), 448–452 [In Chinese].
Xiao, S. Y. (1994). The theoretical basis and research application of social support rating scale. Journal of Clinical Psychiatry, 4(2), 98–100 [In Chinese].
Xiao, J. Y., Jiang, T. S., Qing, Q. R., & Yuan, X. (2019). Paths for the professional competence improvement of Chinese nursing caregivers - based on the scientific, technical, service and social perspectives of nursing care. Chinese Journal of Gerontology, 39(8), 2034–2038 [In Chinese].
Yu, X. N., & Zhang, J. X. (2007). A comparison between the Chinese version of ego-resiliency scale and Connor-Davidson resilience scale. Journal of Psychological Science, 30(5), 1169–1171 [In Chinese].
Zhou, H., & Long, L. R. (2004). Statistical remedies for common method biases. Advances in Psychological Science, 12(6), 942–942. https://doi.org/10.3969/j.issn.1671-3710.2004.06.018.
Zhu, W., & Jiang, Y. (2018). A meta-analytic study of predictors for informal caregiver burden in patients with stroke. Journal of Stroke and Cerebrovascular Diseases, 27, 3636–3646. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jstrokecerebrovasdis.2018.08.037.
Acknowledgements
This work was supported by grants from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (71874170), the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (YD2110002004) and the K.C. Wong Magna Fund at Ningbo University.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding authors
Ethics declarations
Conflict of Interest
The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.
Ethical Statement
The Ethics Committee of Ningbo University approved this study, in accordance with the ethical principles of the Declaration of Helsinki.
Informed Consent
All subjects gave written informed consent in accordance with the ethical principles of the Declaration of Helsinki.
Additional information
Publisher’s note
Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Hong, Z., Zhou, W., Song, M. et al. Social support and mental health of caregivers in pension institutions: A mediated moderation model. Curr Psychol 41, 1395–1403 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-020-00678-4
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-020-00678-4