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The Importance of Family Relationships With Nursing Facility Staff for Family Caregiver Burden and Depression

¹ Carolina Program in Healthcare and Aging Research, University of North Carolina–Chapel Hill.
² Cornell Institute for Translational Research on Aging, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York.
³ Cecil G. Sheps Center for Health Services Research, University of North Carolina–Chapel Hill.
⁴ Department of Sociology and Anthropology, Purdue University, West Lafayette, Indiana.
⁵ Department of Human Development, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York.

Address correspondence to Cory K. Chen, University of North Carolina–Chapel Hill, 725 Martin Luther King Boulevard, Chapel Hill, NC 27514. E-mail: corychen{at}email.unc.edu

We explore the association between family caregiver depression and the quality of staff–family relationships, and we test burden as a mediator of this relationship. Using structural equation modeling, we used data from a representative sample of 932 family members from 20 nursing homes in Central New York to examine the association between staff–family relationship quality and family caregiver depression. We then tested family caregiver burden as a mediator of the relationship between staff–family relationship quality and family caregiver depression. Staff–family relationship quality, specifically perceived conflict with staff, is significantly associated with family caregiver depression. Further, caregiver burden mediates this relationship. Interventions to improve staff–family relationships may impact family caregiver depression by reducing the stress that family caregivers experience.