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The relationship between marital intimacy, perceived strain and depression in spouse caregivers of dementia sufferers
Abstract
This study explored the quality of marital relationship between dementia sufferers and their spouse caregivers. It assessed the quality of the relationship (level of intimacy) prior to the onset of dementia and also at the time of the study. Caregivers who experienced lower levels of marital intimacy, both currently and before the onset of dementia, were found to have higher levels of perceived strain and depression. The decline in intimacy following the onset of dementia was estimated from the difference between the levels of past and present intimacy. Caregivers who experienced a greater loss of intimacy had a higher level of depression, but did not show evidence of increased perceived strain. It is speculated that a poor premorbid relationship makes caregiving more stressful because of a greater difficulty in performing the caregiving role. In addition, it is suggested that a poor premorbid relationship or high loss of intimacy acts as a vulnerability factor, predisposing the caregiver to depression.
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“carer psychological morbidity, in particular depression, predicts care breakdown and, therefore, institutionalisation,7,8 as well as elder abuse.9”
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Items 101–138 of 138
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“…symptomatology may even be used as a predictor in relationship change (de Vugt et al., 2003), since this variable is related to concepts such as feelings of loss of intimacy (Morris et al., 1988) or an increase in negative behaviors by the caregiver toward the PLwD (Williamson & Shaffer, 2001).”
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“Furthermore, the intervention increased the family’s level of intimacy (Morris et al., 1988; Waring & Patton, 1984) and possibly protected the caregiver from developing depressive symptoms.”
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“A poor premorbid relationship and significantly impaired relationship quality are pre-disposing factors for perceived strain and depression of the caring partner [25].”
Yuan, H., Xu, K., Arriaga, R. I., & Huh, J. (2026) · ACM Transactions on Computing for Healthcare · doi:10.1145/3816696
“Dementia care is among the most time-intensive forms of elder care, with family caregivers providing substantially more care hours for PLWD than for older adults without dementia [45, 75] and facing increased levels of stress and depression [3, 60, 83, 87, 111].”
Metadata
- Authors
- Morris, L. W., Morris, R. G., & Britton, P. G.
- Affiliations
- Royal Victoria Infirmary (GB)
- Corresponding author
- Morris, Lorna W.
- ORCID
- Morris, Robin G.
- Venue
- British Journal of Medical Psychology
- Publisher
- Wiley
- Published
- 1988-09
- Volume
- 61
- Issue
- 3
- Pages
- 231-236
- ISSN
- 0007-1129 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W2071185686
- Cited by
- 138
- References
- 0
- Citations by year
- 2026: 1 · 2025: 1 · 2024: 2 · 2022: 3 · 2021: 1 · 2020: 4 · 2019: 1 · 2018: 5 · 2017: 4 · 2016: 3 · 2015: 10 · 2014: 11 · 2013: 6 · 2012: 4
- FWCI
- 2.99
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- British Journal of Medical Psychology (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Research Portal (King's College London) (submittedVersion)
- Funders
- Medical Research Council Canada
- Topics
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Psychiatry and Mental health › Dementia and Cognitive Impairment Research
- Health Sciences › Nursing › Research and Theory › Nursing care and research
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Attachment and Relationship Dynamics
- Keywords
- marital intimacy, dementia, spousal caregivers, caregiver depression, perceived strain, caregiver stress, vulnerability factors
- MeSH terms
- Aged, Aged, 80 and over, Alzheimer Disease, Depressive Disorder, Female, Home Nursing, Humans, Male, Marriage, Middle Aged, Psychological Tests, Risk Factors, Dementia, Vascular
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