Effect of perceived stigmatization on the quality of life among ageing female family carers: a comparison of carers of adults with intellectual disability and carers of adults with mental illness.
Stigma drags down quality of life for older carers, especially those helping adults with mental illness, yet social support can cushion the blow.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Bigby et al. (2009) asked older women in Taiwan about the stigma they feel while caring for adults. Half cared for an adult with intellectual disability. The other half cared for an adult with mental illness. Everyone filled out a short quality-of-life survey.
What they found
Both groups said stigma hurts their quality of life. The mental-illness carers felt the sting more. Good health and strong social support also predicted better day-to-day life.
How this fits with other research
Lin et al. (2009) ran the same survey with carers of kids with ID and saw the same drop in quality of life. Chiu et al. (2015) and Matson et al. (2013) show the same stigma pathway in Chinese carers of younger clients. Recio et al. (2020) adds a twist: social support can partly block the damage stigma does to self-esteem. Together the papers say stigma is a steady threat across age and country, but support can soften the blow.
Why it matters
When you meet an older female carer, ask how judged she feels. A five-minute chat about stigma gives you a fast read on her risk for low quality of life. Add a support plan—peer group, respite voucher, or weekly check-in—to cut the sting. The mental-illness carers need the strongest safety net.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
BACKGROUND: Little account has been taken of quality of life (QoL) among family carers of adults with an intellectual disability (ID) and family carers of adults with a mental illness (MI), particularly the female ageing carers' perceived stigma. We explore whether there are differences in the significant predictors of female ageing family carers' QoL between family carers of adults with ID and family carers of adults with MI and aim to examine the effect of these differences in stigma on carer QoL between the two groups. METHODS: A structural survey interview was administered to 350 female family carers supporting persons with ID and 66 female carers supporting persons with MI; the carers were aged 55 years and older, and the interviews were carried between July 2006 and April 2007 at the carers' homes in a county in Taiwan. The survey package contained standardised scales to measure the carer's stigma, social support, QoL and health as well as adult and carer socio-demographic data. RESULTS: The results highlight that in both groups the ageing female family carers' health and social support were strongly associated with the level of their QoL even though there was also a strong effect of carers' perceived stigma on their QoL. Contrary to previous findings, ageing female family carers of adults with MI had a higher level of QoL compared with the carers of adults with ID. Hierarchical regressions show a stronger effect of perceived stigma on the carer QoL among the family carers of adults with MI than among the carers of adults with ID. CONCLUSIONS: This study suggests that attempts to improve these female older family carers' health and social support must include their lifelong unmet needs in terms of how to cope with the perceived stigma associated with their position.
Journal of intellectual disability research : JIDR, 2009 · doi:10.1111/j.1365-2788.2009.01173.x