The relationships of job and family demands and job and family resources with family caregivers' strain

Abstract

Background: Because of an expected increase in the number of family caregivers, there is a growing public and scientific interest in family caregiving and more specifically in the combination of family care with paid employment. It is important to gain insight in the family caregivers' strain and determining factors in the job and family domain.

Aim: The aim of the study was to examine the associations of job and family demands and job and family resources with indicators of caregivers' psychological strain, that is caregiver burden, work-related emotional exhaustion and general ill mental health. In our research, we focused on individuals who combine paid employment with family caregiving.

Methods: A cross-sectional design was used. The study sample was derived in 2011 from a Dutch financial organisation and a healthcare organisation. A digital fully structured questionnaire was used. The sample consisted of 187 employees who identified themselves as family caregivers. Descriptive statistics and hierarchical linear regression analysis were performed.

Results: Job demands (i.e. workload, work-family conflict) and family demands (i.e. family care hours and family-work conflict) were significantly positively associated with all three domain-specific indicators of strain. The resources of work-family and family-work enrichment and autonomy did not contribute to less experienced strain. More supervisor and colleague support was associated with lower ill mental health.

Conclusion: Our study showed that job demands (workload, work-family conflict) and family demands (family care hours, family-work conflict) were clearly associated with caregiver strain, while associations for job and family resources were not evident. It remains necessary to pay attention to the demanding aspects of dual roles of family caregivers but also to investigate the resources they have available at work as well as in their home situation and explore their potential reducing effect on family caregivers' strain.

Keywords: family caregiving; family demands; family resources; job demands; job resources; paid employment; work-family and family-work conflict; work-family and family-work enrichment.

Figure 1

Conceptual model to study associations between demands and resources, and bidirectional conflict and enrichment in the work and family domain, with three indicators of strain in employed family caregivers.