The current study aims to focus on how burden of care (BOC) affects the quality of life (QOL) of caregivers of children with cancer. This study also aims to explore the mediating role of emotional exhaustion (EE) and psychological distress (PD) in caregivers of children with cancer. For data collection the scales used were Zarit Burden Interview for Burden of Care, Quality of Life Scale, Psychological distress scale and Emotional Exhaustion Questionnaire. Sample in this study were those caregivers whose children have any type of cancer at any stage (N = 100). Data was gathered through a cross-sectional survey that conducted using purposive sampling technique. Results revealed that as Burden of care of caregivers' increases, their quality-of-life decreases. The regression analysis further demonstrated that psychological distress had a significant negative effect on quality of life, while burden of care and emotional exhaustion did not significantly predict quality of life. Parallel Mediation Analysis revealed that emotional exhaustion did not significantly predict quality of life whereas psychological distress showed a significant negative association with quality of life. The indirect effect of burden of care on quality of life through emotional exhaustion was not significant, while the indirect effect through psychological distress was statistically significant. Hence, psychological distress function as mediator between burden of care and quality of life while emotional exhaustion did not mediate this relationship. Present study will have profound influence on psychologists, clinicians, and therapists as they would address emotional exhaustion, distress and burden of care in caregivers.
Sajjad et al. (Thu,) studied this question.