抄録
The purpose of this study was to extract the factor structure of “caregiving mastery”, which is defined as affirmative self perceptions of the caregiver, and to examine its effects on mental health. We analyzed data from primary caregivers caring for a 65 year old, or older person with dementia, or a fall of ADL. Confirmatory factor analysis (N=166), extracted two factors: “caregiving role mastery” and “coping efficacy with caregiving”, which had an acceptable goodness of fit index. In addition, structural equation modeling indicated that caregiving mastery had a significant positive relationship with caregiving stressors and a significant negative relationship with caregiver's mental health. These results suggest that maintaining the caregiver's mental health requires the evaluation of positive appraisals of care giving (caregiving mastery), as well as the negative ones (caregiving burden).
