RESUMO
The purpose of this study was to investigate among college students the relationship between personality traits and willingness to care for a relative with a chronic health condition. 329 undergraduate students completed an online questionnaire. Hierarchical multiple regressions found that after controlling for demographics personality traits explained 10% of the variance in willingness to provide emotional care, 7% in instrumental care, and 7% in nursing care. Within these models, greater empathy was uniquely associated with willingness to provide emotional, instrumental, and nursing care for a family member in the future. Similarly, participants with high agreeableness were more willing to provide emotional care, and participant older age was a unique predictor of instrumental care. The results can help shape research on interventions that incorporate perspective taking, motivational interviewing, and training in life skills as a means of boosting college students' willingness to provide care for a relative with a chronic health condition.
RESUMO
This study examined whether healthier family dynamics were associated with higher personal strengths of resilience, sense of coherence, and optimism among dementia caregivers in Argentina. Caregivers are usually required to assist individuals with dementia, and family members have typically fulfilled that role. Personal strengths such as resilience, sense of coherence, and optimism have been shown to protect caregivers from some of the negative experiences of providing care, though the family-related variables associated with these personal strengths are largely unknown. Hierarchical multiple regressions investigated the extent to which family dynamics variables are associated with each of the caregiver personal strengths after controlling for demographic and caregiver characteristics. A sample of 105 caregivers from Argentina completed a set of questionnaires during a neurologist visit. Family dynamics explained 32% of the variance in resilience and 39% of the variance in sense of coherence. Greater family empathy and decreased family problems were uniquely associated with higher resilience. Greater communication and decreased family problems were uniquely associated with higher sense of coherence. Optimism was not found to be significantly associated with family dynamics. These results suggest that caregiver intervention research focused on the family may help improve caregiver personal strengths in Argentina and other Latin American countries.