Publications and Research
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
7-6-2026
Abstract
The purpose of this cross-sectional study was to explore older adults' perception of caregiver stress and their anticipation of becoming a caregiver (N = 723). Bivariate analyses revealed that perceived caregiving stress was higher among older adults who were females, White/Non-Hispanics, with chronic health conditions, who had experienced prior physical and financial caregiving burdens and was lower among those with just a high school degree. Multivariate analyses revealed that perceived caregiving stress levels remained higher only for those with past experience with physical caregiving, those with chronic health conditions, older females and White/Non-Hispanic older adults. The overall model was significant, F(13, 600) = 5.52, p < 0.001, and explained approximately 12% of the variance in caregiving stress (R 2 = 0.11, adjusted R 2 = 0.09). For anticipated caregiving, bivariate analyses indicated that older adults in the 60–69 years age group, those who were married, employed, without a disability, those who rated their physical health as good or very good, and those with past physical and financial caregiving burdens were significantly more likely to anticipate future caregiving roles. A likelihood ratio test indicated that the full multinomial logistic regression model fit was significant, χ 2(26) = 140.03, p < 0.001. The implications for caregiver preparedness and support are discussed.
Comments
This article was originally published in Cogent Gerontology, available at https://doi.org/10.1080/28324897.2026.2697576
This work is distributed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0).