Marloes Oldenkamp (2018): Caregiving Experiences of Informal Caregivers

This thesis concerns the conditions related to negative and positive caregiving experiences of informal caregivers. Information about these conditions is crucial for prioritizing areas for policy action and the development of effective caregiver support. The proportion and absolute number of older persons is increasing worldwide, resulting in increasing healthcare needs. Fulfilling these increasing healthcare needs puts a pressure on national health care systems and on informal caregivers. In the Netherlands in 2014, about 4.3 million people aged 18 years and over had provided some type of informal care in the past year, which was 33% of the Dutch adult population. About one in ten of them (approximately 400.000 people) felt highly burdened as a result of the informal care they provided. However, the majority of informal caregivers also experiences positive aspects of informal caregiving, such as feelings of reward, enrichment, personal growth or love and appreciation. Existing research suggests that informal caregivers can have both negative and positive caregiving experiences at the same time, and that negative and positive caregiving experiences might be related to different aspects of the informal care situation. With the demographic trend of population ageing and the reforms of the long-term care system, the needs for care increase and the pressure on people to provide informal care increases as well. At the same time, informal care provision can have negative consequences for informal caregivers. These developments require clear insights on the possibilities to reduce negative caregiving experiences and, in addition, to enhance positive caregiving experiences. In this thesis, it was studied if and how variations in negative and positive caregiving experiences can be explained by characteristics of the informal caregiver, the health situation of the care recipient, the care situation in which informal care is provided, and the possible spill-over of informal caregiving to other life domains such as paid work.

Defended: March, 14, 2018
 
Download the dissertation here
 

Supervisors: Ronald StolkMariet Hagedoorn, Nynke Smit, Rafael Wittek

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