Correlates of anxiety among adult daughter caregivers to a parent with cancer

Understanding the factors that increase adult caregiving daughters’ vulnerability to poor psychological functioning and thereby threaten their ability to provide adequate informal support and assistance is important to maintaining the chronically ill elderly in the community. On the basis of data obtained from 164 elderly outpatients (aged 60 to 90) and their adult caregiving daughters, the effect of potential predictors on the caregiving daughter’s state anxiety (STAI-S) scores was estimated using hierarchical regression. The total model suggests that scores of a daughter having a health-limiting condition, a greater sense of filial obligation, and a greater caregiver burden were correlated with higher anxiety scores, whereas having a favorable attitude regarding her care- giving experience, providing care in a greater number of domains of care, and having a higher level of overall satisfaction with the help received in providing care were correlated with lower scores. These findings demonstrate the value of considering the situational factors that may constrain or facilitate caregiving when investigating emotional distress among familial caregivers.