Journals of Gerontology Series B: Psychological Sciences and Social Sciences, Vol 53, Issue 1 P40-P42, Copyright © 1998 by The Gerontological Society of America
Accuracy of caregivers' recollections of caregiving hassles
JC Cavanaugh and JM Kinney
Department of Individual and Family Studies, University of Delaware. jcc@udel.edu
Despite their common use in clinical settings, caregivers' recollections of
the hassles they face in caregiving have not been examined in previous
research. Ninety-seven spousal caregivers of persons with dementia were
assessed for 6 consecutive months concerning caregiving hassles and
numerous other issues. A multi-pass rank order assessment identified the
most stressful event in caregiving over each month-long interval. Each
month via telephone interview, caregivers' recollections of the most
stressful event in the previous month were assessed; no retrieval cues were
provided. Of a total of 582 retrieval events examined, 378 (65%) were
correct, 84 (14%) were incorrect, and 120 (21%) were not remembered. These
data indicate that a majority of caregivers are capable of accurate
recollection of caregiving hassles after a delay of one month following
very careful ranking procedures, but also that individual differences in
accuracy are present.
