Family carers' distress and abusive behaviour: Longitudinal study
Open accessAbstract
Background: A third of family carers of people with dementia report abusive behaviour towards the person for whom they are caring. This is the first longitudinal study to investigate such behaviour. Aims: To test our hypotheses that carers' reports of abusive behaviour would increase over time, and that change in abuse scores would be predicted by change in anxiety and depression scores. Method: In total, 131 (71.6%) of the family/friend dementia carers consecutively recruited from new referrals to Essex and London community mental health teams who were interviewed at baseline, completed the revised Modified Conflict Tactics Scale to measure abuse 1 year later. Results: Sixty-three (48.1%) of the carers reported any abusive behaviour at baseline compared with 81 (61.8%) a year later (χ 2 = 6.9, P = 0.009). An increase in abuse scores was predicted by an increase in anxiety and depressive symptoms (respectively ß = 0.32, t = 3.9, P<0.001 and ß = 0.24, t = 2.9, P = 0.005), and by less domiciliary care at baseline (ß = –0.18, t =–2.2, P = 0.031). Conclusions: Most abusive behaviour reported by carers at baseline persisted or worsened in the following year, despite contact with specialist services. We suggest that trials of psychological interventions shown to reduce anxiety and depression in the carers of people with dementia are needed to determine whether they also reduce elder abuse, and can be delivered cost-effectively within the National Health Service (NHS).
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The wellbeing of carers is associated with their caregiving capacity, that is, poorer wellbeing affects propensity to provide adequate support.
“Furthermore, the wellbeing of carers is associated with their caregiving capacity, that is, poorer wellbeing affects propensity to provide adequate support (Cooper, Blanchard, Selwood, Walker, & Livingston, 2010;Sin, Murrells, Spain, Norman, & Henderson, 2016).”
From eHealth interventions for family carers of people with long term illness: A promising approach? (2018) · cites this paper as Cooper et al., 2010
Previous research has not suggested that abusive behaviour would go down over time without intervention.
“previous research has not suggested that this is what would happen without intervention.58”
Caring demands can jeopardize carers' well-being.
“Conversely, it is well established that caring demands can jeopardize carers’ well-being [2,13,14].”
From A multicomponent eHealth intervention for family Carers for people affected by psychosis: a coproduced design and build study (2019) · cites this paper as [13]
Carers who feel they are not supported and lack resources to cope are less likely to engage in caring for their loved ones or more likely to exhibit critical or hostile behavior toward the cared-for individuals.
“Carers who feel they are not supported and lack resources (eg, information about the illness condition and related management issues) to cope are less likely to engage in caring for their loved ones or more likely to exhibit critical or hostile behavior toward the cared-for individuals, albeit unintentionally [13,14,17].”
From A multicomponent eHealth intervention for family Carers for people affected by psychosis: a coproduced design and build study (2019) · cites this paper as [13]
Poor well-being may hamper carers' caregiving capacity.
“Research evidence also suggests that poor well-being may hamper carers’ caregiving capacity.”
From A multicomponent eHealth intervention for family Carers for people affected by psychosis: a coproduced design and build study (2019) · cites this paper as [13]
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Self-citation
- Authors
- Cooper, C., Blanchard, M., Selwood, A., Walker, Z., & Livingston, G.
- Affiliations
- University College London (GB)
- Corresponding author
- Cooper, Claudia
- Venue
- British Journal of Psychiatry
- Publisher
- Royal College of Psychiatrists
- Published
- 2010-06
- Volume
- 196
- Issue
- 6
- Pages
- 480-485
- ISSN
- 0007-1250 (ISSN-L)
- 1472-1465
- OpenAlex
- W2100500724
- Cited by
- 91
- References
- 27
- Citations by year
- 2026: 1 · 2025: 2 · 2024: 5 · 2023: 1 · 2022: 9 · 2021: 5 · 2020: 12 · 2019: 4 · 2018: 6 · 2017: 2 · 2016: 7 · 2015: 6 · 2014: 9 · 2013: 13 · 2012: 6
- FWCI
- 20.16
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- bronze
- doi.org
- Locations
- The British Journal of Psychiatry (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- UCL Discovery (University College London) (submittedVersion)
- Funders
- Alzheimer's Society
- Medical Research Council
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Demography › Elder Abuse and Neglect
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Psychiatry and Mental health › Dementia and Cognitive Impairment Research
- Health Sciences › Health Professions › Pharmacy › Nursing care and research
- Keywords
- family caregivers, dementia, elder abuse, abusive behavior, caregiver distress, anxiety, depression, longitudinal change, home care, community mental health services, psychological intervention
- MeSH terms
- Adaptation, Psychological, Aged, Dementia, Elder Abuse, Female, Home Nursing, Humans, Longitudinal Studies, Male, Quality of Life, Socioeconomic Factors, Caregivers
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