Caring for My Abuser: Childhood Maltreatment and Caregiver Depression.
PURPOSE OF THE STUDY
This study examined depressive symptoms among adult survivors of childhood maltreatment who provided care to their former abusive/neglectful parents. We also investigated the extent to which four coping styles--problem-focused coping, emotion-focused coping, positive social support, and negative social support--moderated the association between childhood maltreatment and depressive symptoms of the caregivers.


DESIGN AND METHODS
Among 1,001 filial caregivers from the 2003-2005 wave of the Wisconsin Longitudinal Study, 18.6% of respondents reported verbal, physical, or sexual abuse in childhood; 9.4% reported neglect in childhood. Ordinary least squares regression models were estimated.


RESULTS
Persons who had a history of parental abuse showed significantly more frequent depressive symptoms when providing care to their abusive parent(s) compared with caregivers who had not experienced parental abuse. Those who had been neglected had significantly more frequent depressive symptoms than caregivers who did not report neglect. Additionally, the use of emotion-focused coping was more strongly associated with more frequent depressive symptoms among abused caregivers than among caregivers with no history of abuse.


IMPLICATIONS
This vulnerable group of caregivers should be recognized in the development and implementation of support services for family caregivers at the state and national levels. In direct practice settings, when assessing caregiver stress and burden, the history of childhood maltreatment needs to be taken into account.
['Kong|Jooyoung|J|', 'Moorman|Sara M|SM|']
D000223:Adaptation, Psychological D000328:Adult D054523:Adult Survivors of Child Abuse D000368:Aged D000369:Aged, 80 and over D017028:Caregivers D003863:Depression D005260:Female D006801:Humans D008137:Longitudinal Studies D008297:Male D008875:Middle Aged D015999:Multivariate Analysis D012189:Retrospective Studies D012944:Social Support D013315:Stress, Psychological D014922:Wisconsin
Caregiving Depressive symptoms Child abuse and neglect Coping styles Stress process model