Psychological resilience in spousal caregivers of memory clinic patients with Alzheimer disease

Faced with comparable demands, some caregivers of persons with Alzheimer disease (AD) become overwhelmed early in the course of the illness while others cope for many years under remarkable stress. Psychological resilience may enable clinicians to identify caregivers at risk for stress-induced psychopathology. The current study examined the three facets of psychological resilience (i.e., commitment to living, challenge, perceived control) relative to the well-being of a sample of cohabitating, community-residing spousal caregivers of persons with AD using hierarchical regression. The sample was recruited from a tertiary diagnostic clinic over a period of 21 months (N = 130). Challenge and perceived control were inversely associated with depressive symptoms. Perceived control was also significantly related to caregiver burden. None of the psychological resilience constructs uniquely contributed to the prediction of life satisfaction. These findings provide partial support for the hypothesized association between psychological well-being and caregiver well-being indices.