This investigation explored the relationship of demographic, social network, social support, and stroke-related factors to depressive symptomatology and well-being in 50 elderly individuals who had recently suffered a first, completed stroke and their partners. Data were gathered at two points in time, with interviews scheduled six months apart. Outcome measures included the CES-D depression scale and the Index of Psychological Well-Being. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, correlational procedures, multiple regression, and change-focused regression analyses. For the caregivers, lower depression levels at Time 1 were associated with better subjective health, less concern about being able to care for the patient in the future, higher levels of patient ADL functioning, greater perceived pre-stroke instrumental support, and greater patient optimism. At Time 2, lower caregiver depression scores were associated with lower levels of perceived burden, fewer health problems or negative changes in health status, fewer negative network interactions, greater network density, greater frequency of network contacts, and fewer perceived personality and behavior changes in the patient. Best predictors of depression score for the caregivers at Time 1 were subjective health rating, the patient's level of ADL functioning, degree of concern about ability to care for the patient in the future, the proportion of the network providing instrumental support, and the percent of reciprocal confiding relationships reported. At Time 2, best predictors of depression were level of perceived caregiver burden, objective health score, and network density. The best predictor of caregiver depression level over time was Time 1 depression level. Perceived caregiver burden was also a strong predictor of depression score. For the patients, higher depression scores at Time 1 were associated with whether they felt they could have done anything to prevent the stroke, higher levels of concern about their partner's ability to care for them in the future, and greater reported frequency of pre-stroke disagreement with their partners. At Time 2, higher levels of depressive symptomatology were associated with decreased satisfaction with amount of social contact, a greater proportion of friends in the post-stroke network, a greater degree of perceived negative health change, and change in employment status.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:pdx.edu/oai:pdxscholar.library.pdx.edu:open_access_etds-1477 |
| Date | 01 January 1986 |
| Creators | Rau, Marie Therese |
| Publisher | PDXScholar |
| Source Sets | Portland State University |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Source | Dissertations and Theses |
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