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Self-Gain and Self-Loss Among African American and White Caregivers

^a Department of Public Health Sciences, Wake Forest University School of Medicine, Winston-Salem, North Carolina
^b Department of Health Behavior and Health Education, University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill
^c Center on Minority Aging, University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill

Kristie Long Foley, Wake Forest University School of Medicine, Department of Public Health Sciences, Piedmont Plaza II, Suite 512, Winston-Salem, NC 27157 E-mail: kfoley{at}wfubmc.edu.

Decision Editor: Fredric D. Wolinsky, PhD

Objectives. This study compared the effects of a traditional ideology of care and role conflict on the intrinsic rewards (self-gain) and consequences (self-loss) of caregiving among African Americans and Whites.

Methods. Using a cross-sectional telephone survey of caregivers in North Carolina (n = 481), the authors performed a structural equation groups analysis to assess the equality of an a priori caregiving model for African Americans (n = 257) and Whites (n = 224).

Results. Despite a stronger preference for family care among African Americans, traditional caregiving ideology was associated with more self-gain among Whites only; there was no relationship between preference for family care and self-loss for either group. Furthermore, role conflict was unrelated to self-gain but was related to more self-loss for both groups. Three additional relationships differed between African Americans and Whites: age and self-gain, gender and self-gain, and care recipient depression and role conflict. However, 12 proposed relationships were statistically significant and equivalent for African Americans and Whites.

Discussion. The findings suggest that contextual elements that influence preference for family care and role conflict are almost identical for African Americans and Whites. Caregiver demographics are associated with caregiving ideology, whereas care recipient frailty is related to role conflict. However, there are differences between African American and White caregivers, which primarily stem from the role of age, gender, and preference for family care with self-gain.

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