Mastery: A Comparison of Wife and Daughter Caregivers of a Person With Dementia

Purpose: The purpose was to obtain a better understanding of the role of mastery (global and caregiving) in wives’ versus daughters’ experience of caring for a person with dementia. Method: A total of 67 caregivers participated in a cross-sectional study. Variables measured were global mastery, caregiving mastery, stress, and depressive symptoms. Analysis included t tests, correlations, and multiple regressions. Findings: Wives and daughters reported similar levels of stress and depressive symptoms. The correlations between stressors, caregiver stress, and depressive symptoms were significant for wives but not daughters. The relationships between global mastery and stress, and global mastery and depressive symptoms were significant for both wives and daughters, but the magnitude was less for daughters in the relationship of global mastery and depressive symptoms. Caregiver mastery was strongly related to stress and depressive symptoms for wives but not for daughters. Conclusions: Consideration must be given to the differences in the experience of mastery so that evaluations and interventions can be tailored to the unique experiences of wives and daughters.