| dc.description.abstract | As the baby boomer generation ages, the need for caregivers will increase. Research has demonstrated that the burden of providing care can have potentially negative effects on the physical and mental health of caregivers and on marital satisfaction. However, the role of intimacy has been overlooked. Given that spouses often take care of their husbands or wives, an understanding of how initimacy may influence the relationship between caregiving and marital satisfaction needs to be futher investigated. This dissertation investigated the relationship between caregiver burden, marital satisfaction, and intimacy. The study employed nationally representative data from the National Social Life, Health, and Aging Project (NSHAP) to test intimacy as a potential mediator of the relationship between caregiver burden and marital satisfaction. Type of chronic health condition, age, and gender were tested as moderators of theses relationships. The results indicated that caregivers who reported greater levels of satisfaction from physical and emotional intimacy experienced greater marital satisfaction. Older caregivers, however, experienced less marital satisfaction. The study also revealed different patterns of caregiving by male and female caregivers. Consistent with previous research, women reported spending more time on providing care than men. Frequency of intimate behaviors was significantly correlated with depressive symptoms among male but not female caregivers. The SPSS macro PROCESS was employed to test the hypothesis about the mediating role of intimacy in the relationship between caregiver burden and marital satisfaction. The frequency of intimate behaviors as well as satisfaction from intimacy were tested as mediators of the relationship between hours per week spent providing care and positive versus negative marital satisfaction. These mediator models were evaluated for the overall sample of 100 caregivers as well as separately for male versus female caregivers. Little support was found for intimacy as a mediator in the relationship between caregiving and maritial satisfaction. Additional analyses used hierarchical regression to examine the moderating effects of age, gender, and type of chronic health condition on the relationships among caregiving, marital satisfaction, and intimacy. Neither age, gender, or type of chronic health condition was a significant moderator of these relationships. Despite these null findings, this study has important implication for health care professionals. It is important to recognize the influence of intimacy on marital satisfaction. Appropriate interventions for older couples affected by chronic health condictions should be developed to restore intimacy, both the frequency of initimate behaviors and satisfaction from intimacy. A primary limitation of this study was the lack of a measure of caregiver burden in the NSHAP database as well as the reliance on cross-sectional data. Future research should address these limitations by assessing both objective and subjective measures of caregiver burden as well as collecting dyadic data as well as data from multiple time points, reflecting changing patterns of caregiving, burden, initimacy, and marital sastisfaction. | |
