The DOI matches its Crossref record.
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.
Overview
Integrity signals
Registry
Cites
Statistics
Verification
Claims the paper makes
Claims other papers make about this one
Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?
In the citing paper
“carer psychological morbidity, in particular depression, predicts care breakdown and, therefore, institutionalisation,7,8 as well as elder abuse.9”
Citations
Cited by
Sorted by citations
Is caregiving hazardous to one’s physical health? A meta-analysis
Vitaliano, P. P., Zhang, J., & Scanlan, J. M. (2003) · Psychological Bulletin · doi:10.1037/0033-2909.129.6.946 · Cited by 1,734
Omoto, A. M., & Snyder, M. (1995) · Journal of Personality and Social Psychology · doi:10.1037/0022-3514.68.4.671 · Cited by 1,105
Anxiety and depression in family caregivers of people with Alzheimer disease: the LASER-AD study.
Mahoney, R., Regan, C., Katona, C., & Livingston, G. (2005) · The American Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry · doi:10.1097/00019442-200509000-00008 · Cited by 461
Livingston, G., Kelly, L., Lewis-Holmes, E., Baio, G., Morris, S., Patel, N., Omar, R. Z., Katona, C., & Cooper, C. (2014) · British Journal of Psychiatry · doi:10.1192/bjp.bp.113.141119 · Cited by 426
Coping strategies, anxiety and depression in caregivers of people with Alzheimer’s disease
Cooper, C., Katona, C., Orrell, M., & Livingston, G. (2008) · International Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry · doi:10.1002/gps.2007 · Cited by 307
“As caregiver psychiatric morbidity is associated with CR institutionalisation (Morris et al., 1988) interventions may have economic as well as humanitarian benefits.”
Background
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
About these checks
Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.
Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.
Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.
What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›
Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review
