2025 Volume 21 Issue 2 Pages 56-67
The purpose of this study was to obtain new empirical findings that would contribute to the support of family caregivers. A cross-sectional, web-based, multiple-choice survey was conducted in July 2023 among family caregivers who lived with a person certified as needing care and providing daily care. Using the 718 responses obtained, we tested a hypothetical model integrating the associations between normative consciousness of family caregiving and relevant factors using multivariate analysis. These factors included caregiver's age, duration of caregiving, objective caregiving burden, subjective caregiving burden, psychological stress, physical symptoms, and the care level of care recipients. As the result, the validity of the hypothesis model was supported and it was proven that the normative consciousness of family caregiving affected not only subjective caregiving burden but also objective caregiving burden, psychological stress, and the level of awareness of the physical symptom directly or indirectly. It was suggested that it is important for supporters to understand that the family caregiver's situation is under the influence of the normative consciousness behind their lives, and to develop support measures that take a holistic view of each caregiver based on an appropriate assessment of the objective care burden.
