Conducted meta-analysis of 14 studies to determine gender differences in caregiving stressors and burden. Found essentially no significant gender differences in functional impairment of frail care recipient or total caregiver involvement in care or in money management tasks. Female caregivers were more likely to carry out personal care and…

Self-reports of frequency of crying episodes are described for two nonclinical samples of younger and older adult men and women. Comparison of samples revealed no evidence for either a decreased or increased frequency of crying among the older sample. Crying episodes function as an adaptive coping response to and should not be automatically…

Administered questionnaires on religion and well-being to 836 older adults. Found moderately strong correlations between morale and three religious measures (organizational religious activity, nonorganizational religious activity, intrinsic religiosity). For women and subjects aged 75 and older, religious behaviors and attitudes were particularly…

The bereavement process of elderly male and female surviving spouses was compared in a 2-year longitudinal study. No statistically significant differences at any of the time periods indicate that their bereavement processes were characterized more by similarities than differences. (Author/ABB)

Used data from interviews with 131 older spouse caregivers to explore potential explanations for gender differences in reported caregiver burden. Linear regression model explained 35 percent of variance in caregiver burden. Patient's cognitive and behavioral difficulties emerged as most important predictor of burden, followed by caregiver age,…

Studied depression of family caregivers seeking help to increase coping skills (N=158) and volunteer non-help-seekers (N=58). Found depression among 46 percent of help-seekers and 18 percent of non-help-seekers. Found women more depressed than men but no major differences in depression for those caring for more impaired persons. (Author/CM)

This study examined the relationship between widowed persons' baseline assessments of self-efficacy beliefs and their ratings of perceived health-related quality of life, life sanctions, and self-esteem obtained in an 18-month follow-up. Results revealed widows and widowers differ significantly with respect to self-efficacy and perceived quality…