The study examined differences in positive aspects of caregiving (PAC) among 232 Hispanic caregivers and 691 Non-Hispanic Caucasian (NHC) caregivers of individuals with Alzheimer's disease, using baseline data of National Institutes of Health Resources for Enhancing Alzheimer's Care Health (REACH) study. Multiple linear regression models, mediation analysis and Sobel's test were performed to assess the mediating effects of five possible mediators (education, socioeconomic status, behavior bother, social support and religiosity). Hispanics caregivers reported higher scores on PAC than their NHC counterparts. Hispanic caregivers' higher religiosity partially mediated the relationship between ethnicity and PAC. Additional variables that contributed to their higher PAC scores were caregivers' lower education level and lower socioeconomic status. A similar approach was used to compare values of PAC between 77 Mexican and 88 Cuban female caregivers. Mexican female caregivers reported statistically significant higher PAC when compared with Cuban female caregivers. The full mediation of socioeconomic status (SES) and partial mediation of education were seen to exist in the relationship between PAC and ethnicity. The question of how or why the PAC differences exist between ethnic groups was partially answered by employing the mediation analysis. The public health importance of this thesis is to provide the information on the ethnic differences in PAC, which is useful for social and psychological interventions.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:PITT/oai:PITTETD:etd-11302005-163809 |
| Date | 02 February 2006 |
| Creators | Sun, Kang |
| Contributors | Richard Schulz, Ada Youk, Sati Mazumdar |
| Publisher | University of Pittsburgh |
| Source Sets | University of Pittsburgh |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Source | http://etd.library.pitt.edu/ETD/available/etd-11302005-163809/ |
| Rights | unrestricted, I hereby certify that, if appropriate, I have obtained and attached hereto a written permission statement from the owner(s) of each third party copyrighted matter to be included in my thesis, dissertation, or project report, allowing distribution as specified below. I certify that the version I submitted is the same as that approved by my advisory committee. I hereby grant to University of Pittsburgh or its agents the non-exclusive license to archive and make accessible, under the conditions specified below, my thesis, dissertation, or project report in whole or in part in all forms of media, now or hereafter known. I retain all other ownership rights to the copyright of the thesis, dissertation or project report. I also retain the right to use in future works (such as articles or books) all or part of this thesis, dissertation, or project report. |
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