Caring Caregivers : Actor-Partner Interdependence Model between Patients with Serious Mental Illness and Their Caregivers in Korea

서지정보

· 발행기관 : 서강대학교 미디어융합연구소
· 수록지 정보 : 미디어융합연구 / 30호 / 7 ~ 34페이지
· 저자명 : 조혜진, 김정현

초록

Dealing with serious mental illness is a dyadic process that involves both patients and caregivers. The goal of the present study is to explore whether patients’ and caregivers’ perceived social support positively affect their partners’ quality of life as well as their own quality of life in Korea, where public stigma toward serious mental illness is more severe than in Western countries. We recruited inpatients with serious mental illness and their primary caregivers (N = 48 dyads) from a mental hospital in Korea. Actor-Partner Interdependence Model (APIM) was used to analyze our dyadic data. Results indicated that patients’ and caregivers’ perceived social support positively affected their own quality of life, supporting actor effects for both patients and caregivers. More importantly, caregivers’ perceived social support positively influenced patients’ quality of life, supporting a caregivers’ partner effect on patients. However, patients’ perceived social support did not improve caregivers’ quality of life. Based on these findings, the present study suggests the degree of functional impairment of patients and socio-cultural contexts need to be considered in patient-caregiver dyad research. The importance of social support for caregivers is also discussed.

참고자료

· 없음