The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on self-efficacy scores and intensity of depressiveness in people aged over 60 years providing kinship foster care

Abstract

Abstract Background The objective of this study has been to investigate whether the COVID-19 pandemic has had impact on self-efficacy scores and intensity of depressive severity in people aged over 60 who provide kinship foster care to their grandchildren. Methods The study subjects were selected from among individuals aged over 60 years providing kinship foster care to their grand-children. The participants were asked to complete the Generalised Self-Efficacy Scale (GSE) and the Geriatric Depression Scale (GDS) before and during the pandemic. The questionnaire was com-pleted in whole twice by 40 participants. Results There are no statistically significant differences between the GSE and GDS scores obtained before and during the pandemic. In study subjects with the oldest child in foster care aged 10 years or less, the GDS score decreased in a statistically sig-nificant way (p = 0.03). The correlation coefficient of the GSE and GDS scores before the pandemic was − 0.46 (p = 0.003), while that of scores during the pandemic was − 0.43 (p = 0.006). Conclusions Neither the sense of self-efficacy nor the intensity of depressiveness of the study subjects changed significantly during the pandemic. Both before and during the pandemic, the increase in depressiveness was associated with a decrease in self-efficacy.

Keywords

• Foster family
• COVID-19 pandemic
• Self-efficacy
• Depression
• Old age