中華心理衛生協會

Purpose: This study investigated the relationships among elderly care-recipient characteristics, caregiver characteristics, caregiving contextual factors and potentially harmful caregiver behavior to understand the predictors of potentially harmful caregiver behavior. Methods: Using stratified random sampling, 222 elders and their caregivers from 5 counties in central Taiwan were selected for the study. Data were compiled through questionnaire interviews. Hierarchical regression analyses were used to test the hypothesized models. Results: The findings indicated 5 major predictors of harmful caregiver behavior: the caregiver's self-rated health, the caregiver's relationship with their elderly patient, the caregiver's burden, the caregiver's social support, and disruptive behaviors by the elderly patient from the caregiver's perspective. Together these factors explained 42.9% of the total variance of the dependent variable. Conclusions: The application of a caregiving contextual perspective to identify the risk factors for the potentially harmful behavior of caregivers toward their elderly patients is supported by the theoretical and empirical data. Further discussions on elder abuse prevention and intervention strategies in Taiwan are provided.