engleski

Quality of life, life satisfaction and happiness in professional caregivers

There is a growing body of research related to the outcomes of caregiving provided by family members and/or professionals, but the majority of research focus on burden and emotional distress as outcomes of caregiving. Very little is known about the quality of life and subjective well-being of caregivers, although their main role is to improve quality of life of patients or family members with chronic conditions. When family caregiving is in question, some studies showed that quality of life of caregivers is similar to that of patient, especially when the illness is irreversible, end-stage cancer. On the other side, studies of professional caregivers showed that awareness of distress and the perceived efficiency in dealing with problems can actually enhance their perceived quality of life. The aim of this study was to examine overall quality of life, life satisfaction and happiness in professional caregivers, to explore age and gender differences in these indicators as well as to examine the relationships between satisfaction with specific life domains and measures of happiness and life satisfaction. The study was conducted on the sample of N=1734 professional caregivers in Croatia (82%women, age range 20-64 years). The results showed that the overall degree of quality of life, life satisfaction and happiness was relatively high, taking into account the stressful job that these people have. Among nine specific domains of quality of life, the highest ratings were obtained for the domains of social belonging, psychological and spiritual being, while the lowest were community belonging and three becoming domains. In comparison to men, women rated the domains of spiritual being and physical belonging significantly higher, while younger subjects rated the domains of social belonging, leisure and growth significantly higher than older subjects. Results of regression analyses showed that the life satisfaction ratings were best predicted by satisfaction with physical, social and community belonging, while happiness ratings were best predicted by quality of life in the psychological being domain. The results are discussed in light of possible differences in emotional engagement between family and professional caregivers.

caregiving; well-being

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