https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5739-474X
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Abstract
The present study applied a multilevel approach to assess the effects of caregiving for older parents with Alzheimer’s disease (AD) on a level of depressive symptoms among adult child caregivers in the Baby Boomer generation. Along with the main effect, this study focused on the interaction effects between AD caregiving, gender and marital status. The present study’s findings revealed that AD caregiving experience is associated with worsening depressive symptoms. However, there are differences between individuals in changes in depressive symptoms. Additionally, the results of the interaction effect showed that in the case of unmarried female caregivers, the level of depressive symptoms associated with AD caregiving worsens faster than their counterparts. These results highlight the need for social policies that address the mental health needs of adult child caregivers who are vulnerable to AD caregiving experience.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.
Ethical Approval
Min Kyoung Park, Ji Hyang Cheon, and Rachel McPherson have agreed for authorship, read and approved the manuscript, and given consent for submission and subsequent publication of the manuscript.
Notes
1 The Baby Boomer cohort is a demographic group of 76 million individuals born between 1946 and 1964, during the period known as the “baby boom”. This generation is characterized by a significant increase in birth rates following World War II. However, as of 2012, nearly 11 million Baby Boomers had died, leaving an estimated 65.2 million survivors. However, when immigrants are included, the number of Baby Boomers increases to 76.4 million, as the number of immigrants outweighed the number of baby-boomer deaths (Population Reference Bureau, Citation2014).