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Cited by 865Family Caregiving in Mental IllnessNursing care and researchIntergenerational Family Dynamics and Caregiving

The DOI matches its Crossref record; 121 of the 123 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.

Gender differences in caregiving among family - caregivers of people with mental illnesses

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Sharma, Nidhi, Chakrabarti, Subho, Grover, Sandeep·2016·World Journal of Psychiatry
DOI 10.5498/wjp.v6.i1.7PMC PMC4804270
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Abstract

All over the world women are the predominant providers of informal care for family members with chronic medical conditions or disabilities, including the elderly and adults with mental illnesses. It has been suggested that there are several societal and cultural demands on women to adopt the role of a family-caregiver. Stress-coping theories propose that women are more likely to be exposed to caregiving stressors, and are likely to perceive, report and cope with these stressors differently from men. Many studies, which have examined gender differences among family-caregivers of people with mental illnesses, have concluded that women spend more time in providing care and carry out personal-care tasks more often than men. These studies have also found that women experience greater mental and physical strain, greater caregiver-burden, and higher levels of psychological distress while providing care. However, almost an equal number of studies have not found any differences between men and women on these aspects. This has led to the view that though there may be certain differences between male and female caregivers, most of these are small in magnitude and of doubtful clinical significance. Accordingly, caregiver-gender is thought to explain only a minor proportion of the variance in negative caregiving outcomes. A similar inconsistency characterizes the explanations provided for gender differences in caregiving such as role expectations, differences in stress, coping and social support, and response biases in reporting distress. Apart from the equivocal and inconsistent evidence, there are other problems in the literature on gender differences in caregiving. Most of the evidence has been derived from studies on caregivers of elderly people who either suffer from dementia or other physical conditions. Similar research on other mental illnesses such as schizophrenia or mood disorders is relatively scarce. With changing demographics and social norms men are increasingly assuming roles as caregivers. However, the experience of men while providing care has not been explored adequately. The impact of gender on caregiving outcomes may be mediated by several other variables including patient-related factors, socio-demographic variables, and effects of kinship status, culture and ethnicity, but these have seldom been considered in the research on gender differences. Finally, it is apparent that methodological variations in samples, designs and assessments between studies contribute a great deal to the observed gender differences. This review highlights all these issues and concludes that there is much need for further research in this area if the true nature of gender differences in family-caregiving of mental illnesses is to be discerned.

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Metadata

Authors
Sharma, N., Chakrabarti, S., & Grover, S.
Affiliations
Post Graduate Institute of Medical Education and Research (IN)
Corresponding author
Chakrabarti, Subho
ORCID
Venue
World Journal of Psychiatry
Publisher
Baishideng Publishing Group Inc.
Published
2016
Volume
6
Issue
1
Pages
7
ISSN
2220-3206 (ISSN-L)
DOI
10.5498/wjp.v6.i1.7
PMC
PMC4804270
OpenAlex
W2311849209
Cited by
865
References
123
Citations by year
2026: 119 · 2025: 138 · 2024: 121 · 2023: 100 · 2022: 104 · 2021: 112 · 2020: 73 · 2019: 45 · 2018: 31 · 2017: 19 · 2016: 3
FWCI
43.73
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Licence
cc-by-nc
Locations
  • World Journal of Psychiatry (publishedVersion, cc-by-nc)
  • Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed Central (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
Topics
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Family Caregiving in Mental Illness
  • Health Sciences › Nursing › Research and Theory › Nursing care and research
  • Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Intergenerational Family Dynamics and Caregiving
Keywords
gender differences, family caregivers, mental illness, informal care, caregiver burden, psychological distress, caregiving stress, stress coping, schizophrenia, mood disorders, role expectations, social support, response bias

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