3.1. Descriptive statistics
The first step of our analysis involved calculating descriptive statistics. Of the total sample of 1,429 caregivers, 81% were women. The average age was 54 years. About a quarter of the caregivers (25.5%) were full-time and about one-third (31.5%) were employed part-time. About 10% were unemployed and about 34% were not working for other reasons (e.g., retired or in school). On the 7-point Likert scale, in which 7 signifies “very severe limitations” and 1 signifies “not limitations at all,” the severity of the care recipients’ physical limitations was on average about 5 points (4.99) and above the severity of mental limitations with 4.6 points. As to the CPPN domains, the highest score was for the need to have more free time (5.76), followed by the need to maintain one’s own health (5.63). The next highest ranked item was that caregivers rated social contacts as 5.38 points average. Finally, the need for financial security and the need to combine work and care domains were rated 5.15 and 4.77 points, respectively. The descriptive statistics of the sample are detailed in Table 1.
Table 1: Sample Description (N=1,429)
Characteristics
|
Percentage/Mean (SD)
|
Gender
|
|
Female
|
81%
|
Age
|
54 (12.21) years
|
Employment
|
|
Employed full-time
|
25.5%
|
Employed part-time
|
31.5%
|
Unemployed
|
9.1%
|
Not working for other reasons
|
34.1%
|
Informal Network
|
1 (1.3) person
|
Limitations of person receiving care
|
|
Physical (1-7)
|
4.9 (1.62) Points
|
Mental (1-7)
|
4.6 (1.85) Points
|
Need for Support (1-7)
|
|
Maintaining one’s own physical and mental health
|
5.63 (1.83) points
|
Social contacts and exchange of experiences
|
5.38 (1.94) points
|
Work and care
|
4.77 (2.48) points
|
Financial security
|
5.15 (2.25) points
|
Possibilities for free time
|
5.76 (1.85) points
|
SD – standard deviation;
3.2. The overall effect of personal and care-related factors on CPPN
First, an overall multivariate test for the significance was conducted to consider the effects of multiple factors. Table 2 displays how personal and care-related factors are associated with all five domains of CPPN. Pillai’s Trace statistics showed significant effects of all variables (P < 0.01). We observed the largest size of the effect by the age of the caregiver accounting for about 12.4% of the variance in CPPN (part. Eta2 = 0.124). Psychological limitations of the person receiving care also have a relatively large effect and account for 5.5% of the variance, followed by the employment status of the caregiver with 4.8%. Physical limitations have a lower effect of only 2.5%, as well as informal network and gender of the caregiver.
Table 2: Multivariate Tests
Effect
|
Pillai’s Trace
|
Partial Eta Squared
|
Value
|
F
|
Significance
|
Gender
|
.015
|
4.283
|
.001
|
.015
|
Age
|
.142
|
40.008
|
.000
|
.124
|
Employment
|
.150
|
14.117
|
.000
|
.048
|
Informal network
|
.021
|
6.026
|
.000
|
.021
|
Limitations (physical)
|
.025
|
7.108
|
.000
|
.025
|
Limitations (mental)
|
.058
|
16.424
|
.000
|
.055
|
3.3. Significant determinants of CPPN domains
After obtaining a significant multivariate test for particular main effects, we examined the univariate F tests for each variable. Table 3 presents the specific CPPN domains that are affected by the independent variables.
TABLE 3 NEAR HERE
Table 3: Between-subject effects
Independent variables
|
Dependent variables
|
Type III sum of squares
|
df
|
F
|
Significance
|
Gender
|
Health
|
.500
|
1
|
11.693
|
.001
|
|
Contacts
|
.463
|
1
|
9.139
|
.003
|
|
Work
|
.445
|
1
|
5.605
|
.018
|
|
Finances
|
.001
|
1
|
.018
|
.892
|
|
Free time
|
.472
|
1
|
9.896
|
.002
|
Age
|
Health
|
.152
|
1
|
2.808
|
.094
|
|
Contacts
|
.004
|
1
|
.210
|
.647
|
|
Work
|
11.185
|
1
|
117.869
|
.000
|
|
Finances
|
6.955
|
1
|
89.977
|
.000
|
|
Free time
|
.154
|
1
|
2.375
|
.124
|
Employment
|
Health
|
.165
|
3
|
1.282
|
.279
|
|
Contacts
|
.470
|
3
|
3.093
|
.026
|
|
Work
|
10.133
|
3
|
42.573
|
.000
|
|
Finances
|
2.134
|
3
|
10.008
|
.000
|
|
Free time
|
.294
|
3
|
2.056
|
.104
|
Informal network
|
Health
|
.914
|
1
|
21.361
|
.000
|
|
Contacts
|
.677
|
1
|
13.356
|
.000
|
|
Work
|
.384
|
1
|
4.840
|
.028
|
|
Finances
|
1.070
|
1
|
15.047
|
.000
|
|
Free time
|
.959
|
1
|
20.089
|
.000
|
Limitations (physical)
|
Health
|
.378
|
1
|
8.843
|
.003
|
|
Contacts
|
.209
|
1
|
4.116
|
.043
|
|
Work
|
.779
|
1
|
9.824
|
.002
|
|
Finances
|
2.106
|
1
|
29.630
|
.000
|
|
Free time
|
.802
|
1
|
16.815
|
.000
|
Limitations (mental)
|
Health
|
2.820
|
1
|
65.935
|
.000
|
|
Contacts
|
3.152
|
1
|
62.204
|
.000
|
|
Work
|
1.130
|
1
|
14.248
|
.000
|
|
Finances
|
1.480
|
1
|
20.815
|
.000
|
|
Free time
|
2.470
|
1
|
51.756
|
.000
|
df- degrees of freedom;
First, the results of the between-subject effects indicated that the CPPN domains health, free time, social contacts, as well as work and care differed significantly based on caregivers’ gender. Figure 1 compares significant differences between gender groups. In all four domains, women have significantly higher needs than men (P < 0.01). The perceived need for free time is rated by women as on average 5.89 points, which is about 0.7 points higher than men rank it. The need to maintain their health is on average 5.76 for women, which is above the value of 5.06 for men. Social contacts are rated 5.48 by women and 4.95 by men. Women rate work issues 4.97 points, while men rate them 3.9 points.
FIGURE 1 NEAR HERE
Second and as shown in Table 3, the results also indicated that caregivers differed significantly based on their employment status in the social contacts, work and care, and finances domains (P < 0.05). We conducted the LSD post-hoc test to detect significant differences between the groups. The results of the post-hoc between-subject effects are shown in Table 4.
Table 4: Post-hoc between-subject effects
Need domain
|
Employment status
|
M (SD)
|
Post-hoc results
|
Social contacts
|
Full-time
|
4.92 (2.1)
|
Lower than in all other groups**
|
|
Part-time
|
5.39 (1.9)
|
Lower than unemployed*, higher than full-time**
|
|
Unemployed
|
5.85 (1.6)
|
Higher than full-time**, higher than part-time*
|
|
Not-working
|
5.59 (1.9)
|
Higher than full-time**
|
Work and care
|
Full-time
|
5.43 (2.1)
|
Lower the part-time*, higher than not-working**
|
|
Part-time
|
5.79 (1.8)
|
Higher than all other groups*
|
|
Unemployed
|
5.26 (2.2)
|
Lower than part-time, higher than not-working
|
|
Not-working
|
3.20 (2.6)
|
Lower than all other groups**
|
Financial security
|
Full-time
|
4.81 (4.8)
|
Lower than part-time and unemployed **
|
|
Part-time
|
5.67 (5.6)
|
Higher than full-time and not working**, lower than unemployed**
|
|
Unemployed
|
6.30 (6.3)
|
Higher than all other groups**
|
|
Not-working
|
4.62 (4.6)
|
Lower than part-time and unemployed**
|
M – Mean; SD – standard deviation;
The results of the post-hoc tests show that full-time employed caregivers have a significantly lower need for social contacts compared to other groups (M = 4.92). The highest need for social contacts is among caregivers who are unemployed (M = 5.85) or not working for other reasons (M = 5.59). Work and care is more important for part-time employed caregivers (M = 5.79). Full-time employed and unemployed caregivers rate the importance of work and care at a moderate level (M = 5.43 and M = 5.26), and finally caregivers who are not working have a lower need in this domain (M = 3.2). Financial security is more important for unemployed caregivers (M = 6.3), followed by part-time employed (M = 5.67). Full-time employed and not-working caregivers evaluate it as less important (M = 4.81 and M = 4.62). Figure 1 demonstrates the average scores of each employment group.
Third, the age of the caregivers significantly affects the work and care domain as well as the domain financial security (P < 0.01). We observe that with increasing age the importance of work and care (B = -0.06) as well as financial security decreases (B = -0.05). The effect on the work and care domain is slightly higher than on financial security.
Fourth, the severity of physical and psychological limitation of the person receiving care significantly influenced all CPPN domains. With more severe physical and mental limitations of the person receiving care, caregivers have higher CPNN. The strongest effect of the severity of physical limitations is on the financial security domain (B = 0.21; P < 0.01). In contrast, the severity of mental limitations have the highest impact on the social contacts domain (B = 0.23; P < 0.01), followed by the health domain (B = 0.22; P < 0.01).
Finally and fifth, the informal network of the caregiver is a significant determinant of the level of CPPN in all five domains. The need for support in all domains is higher, when the informal network of the caregiver is smaller. These effects are especially high on the domains of financial security (B = -0.17; P < 0.01) and free time (B = -0.17; P < 0.01).
Table 5 provides an overview of the regression coefficients for the metric variables caregivers’ age, informal network as well as the severity of physical and mental limitations of the care recipient.
Table 5: Regression coefficients
Dependent variable
|
Parameter
|
Regression Coeff.
|
SD
|
Sig.
|
Work and Care
|
Age
|
-.058
|
.005
|
.000
|
Finances
|
Age
|
-.049
|
.005
|
.000
|
Health
|
Informal network
|
-.164
|
.037
|
.000
|
Social contacts
|
Informal network
|
-.133
|
.039
|
.001
|
Work and Care
|
Informal network
|
-.103
|
.044
|
.019
|
Finances
|
Informal network
|
-.173
|
.043
|
.000
|
Time-out
|
Informal network
|
-.168
|
.037
|
.000
|
Health
|
Physical limitations
|
.094
|
.029
|
.001
|
Social contacts
|
Physical limitations
|
.084
|
.031
|
.007
|
Work and Care
|
Physical limitations
|
.128
|
.035
|
.000
|
Finances
|
Physical limitations
|
.213
|
.034
|
.000
|
Time-out
|
Physical limitations
|
.137
|
.029
|
.000
|
Health
|
Mental limitations
|
.221
|
.026
|
.000
|
Social contacts
|
Mental limitations
|
.230
|
.027
|
.000
|
Work and Care
|
Mental limitations
|
.131
|
.031
|
.000
|
Finances
|
Mental limitations
|
.151
|
.030
|
.000
|
Time-out
|
Mental limitations
|
.208
|
.026
|
.000
|
SD – standard deviation; Sig. – significance;