Psychological Distress in Alzheimer’s Disease Family Caregivers: Gender Differences and the Moderated Mediation of Resilience

Abstract

Different studies have reported gender differences in the variables of psychological distress, burden, social support, and resilience in family caregivers of relatives with Alzheimer’s disease; however, there is no clear evidence of the specific role of burden, social support, and resilience between gender and psychological distress. The aim of the present study is to clarify the role of these variables. Burden, psychological distress, social support, and resilience have been assessed in a cross-sectional design with a convenience sample of 140 family caregivers of relatives with Alzheimer’s disease. Our results confirm gender differences in terms of psychological distress, with higher scores found in female than in male caregivers, whilst male caregivers showed higher scores in terms of resilience than female caregivers. No gender differences have been found in terms of burden and social support. In addition, moderated mediation was obtained via the interaction of gender and social support on resilience, which plays a mediating role in psychological distress. Social support and resilience have shown a protective role concerning the mental health of caregivers, but female caregivers need higher social support to present a similar level of resilience to male caregivers.

Keywords

• gender
• psychological distress
• resilience
• social support
• Alzheimer disease family caregivers
• burden