HOW PSYCHOLOGICAL RESILIENCE MEDIATES THE EFFECT OF CAREGIVER FRUSTRATION ON THE HEALTH OF CAREGIVERS - Abstract

Q: Why might caregiver frustration affect health in dementia caregivers?

Caregiving responsibilities often evoke negative emotions such as frustration, which can negatively influence caregivers’ health and well-being.

Q: How did the study test the role of psychological resilience?

It used cross-sectional data from 291 dementia caregivers and performed path analysis to model direct links among frustration, resilience, and self-reported health.

Q: Did caregiver frustration have a direct effect on self-reported health?

No. The direct effect of caregiver frustration on self-reported health was not statistically significant, while an indirect effect through reduced resilience was significant.

Sep 28, 2026

Uploaded by Jake

Family caregivers are critically important in supporting older adults living with dementia, yet caregiving often triggers frustration that can harm caregivers’ health and well-being. This cross-sectional path-analysis study examined relationships among caregiver frustration, psychological resilience, and self-reported health in 291 dementia caregivers. Greater frustration was linked to lower resilience, and higher resilience was linked to better self-reported health. Frustration affected health indirectly through reduced resilience, with no significant direct effect, suggesting resilience-building interventions may strengthen caregiver support programs.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryHealthcare

FormatPDF

Pages2

Reading Time5 min

AccessFree to download

Study background and rationale

Methods and model specification

Results

Conclusions and implications

Innovation in Aging, 2025, Vol. 9, No. S2 1181 Abstract citation ID: igaf122.3957 HOW PSYCHOLOGICAL RESILIENCE MEDIATES THE EFFECT OF CAREGIVER FRUSTRATION ON THE HEALTH OF CAREGIVERS Victor Elisha1, Emil Coman2, and Richard Fortinsky3, 1. University of Connecticut, Farmington, Connecticut, United States, 2. UConn Health Disparities Institute, Farmington, Connecticut, United States, 3. University of Connecticut, Farmington, Connecticut, United States Family caregivers are critically important in supporting older adults living with dementia. Caregiving responsibilities often lead to negative emotional responses including frustration, which could negatively affect caregivers’ health and well-being. However, adverse effects of caregiver frustration might be mitigated by psychological resilience, which is an established mediator in the manifestation of negative health outcomes in other populations. This cross-sectional study used path analysis to examine relationships between caregiver frustration, psychological resilience, and self-reported health in 291 caregivers of older adults living with dementia. The model hypothesized direct paths connecting caregiver frustration, psychological resilience and 1182 Innovation in Aging, 2025, Vol. 9, No. S2 self-reported health and used maximum likelihood estimation to obtain path coefficients. Results revealed that increased caregiver frustration was associated with lower psychological resilience (β = -0.41: p < 0.0001, 95% CI [-0.59, -0.22]) and psychological resilience was positively associated with self-reported health (β = 0.32: p < 0.0001, 95% CI [0.17, 0.48]. The indirect effect of caregiver frustration on self-reported health via resilience was estimated as-0.13 (p = 0.003, 95% CI [-0.22, -0.05]), while the direct effect of caregiver frustration on self-reported health was not statistically significant (β = -0.083: p = 0.52, 95% CI [-0.34,-0.17]) . We conclude from this pattern of results that the compromising effect of caregiver frustration on health outcomes among caregivers of people living with dementia occurs through diminished psychological resilience, highlighting the potential benefit of psychological resilience-building interventions in caregiver support programs.

FAQs

Why might caregiver frustration affect health in dementia caregivers?

Caregiving responsibilities often evoke negative emotions such as frustration, which can negatively influence caregivers’ health and well-being.

How did the study test the role of psychological resilience?

It used cross-sectional data from 291 dementia caregivers and performed path analysis to model direct links among frustration, resilience, and self-reported health.

Did caregiver frustration have a direct effect on self-reported health?

No. The direct effect of caregiver frustration on self-reported health was not statistically significant, while an indirect effect through reduced resilience was significant.

Sep 28, 2026

Uploaded by Jake