Impact of Caregiver-Receiver Relationship Quality on Burden and Satisfaction

The purpose of this study was to investigate, through an interview process, both the burden and satisfaction of the caregiving relationship between female primary caregivers and female care-receivers living in the same home. The ten cases were families involved in a caregiver/care-receiver shared-residence situation of at least one year's duration. The primary method of data collection was semi-structured interviews. The results of the qualitative approach called for a reversal of perspective. The intent was to examine how burden and satisfaction impacted the caregiver-receiver relationship quality. However, it was the quality of the relationship between the caregiver and care-receiver which distinguished low burden and high satisfaction.