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Psychological well-being may be significantly impacted by caregiver stress. Numerous researches have looked at how stress related to caring affects different facets of mental health, shedding light on the difficulties carers may experience and possible repercussions for their well-being. The stress theory of caring holds that providing care negatively affects the mental health of informal carers, whereas the rewards theory holds that doing so has positive effects on mental health. This study investigates whether or not these two points of view apply to care giving circumstances, and whether or not they do so in various ways depending on the major place of caring (i.e., at home, in another dwelling, or an institution) and the caregiver's gender. Using information from the representative national Indian Longitudinal Study on Aging, we compared non-caregivers to a mixed caregiver group before stratifying caregivers by the primary site of care to investigate the link between depression and life satisfaction. Carers performed low on happiness and despair questionnaires. When the care setting was broken down, only home caregivers reported more unhappiness and worse life satisfaction. Non-residential caregivers reported more life satisfaction and less unhappiness. Despite having higher rates of sadness, institutional carers remained satisfied. These tendencies were stronger in women. In-home carers may benefit more from the stress viewpoint, whereas non-residential caregivers may gain more from the rewards perspective when thinking about the caring experience. Caregiver gender and the care giving setting are highlighted as potential topics for concentrated practice. Interventions should concentrate on identifying and enhancing the benefits that non-residential carers get from providing care.
Gambhir et al. (2024) studied this question.