ABUSE OF THE ELDERLY BY FAMILY CAREGIVERS

The problem of elder abuse was investigated. The research focus was on the identification of the factors underlying the problem.

Both the frequency and the severity of physical and emotional abuse were found to be related positively with both level of stress perceived by caregivers and the substance abuse status of caregivers. Neither the frequency nor the severity of physical and emotional abuse, however, was found to be related to either the cognitive status nor the physical status of the elderly person. Both the frequency and the severity of physical and emotional abuse were found to be related inversely to the degree to which financial support met the financial needs of the caring relationship.

The findings of this study that caregiver stress, substance abuse by caregivers, and financial stress affect the frequency and severity of physical and emotional abuse are consistent with current theory. The findings that the frequency and severity of elder abuse are not related to the cognitive and physical status of the elderly person for whom care is provided, however, are contrary to some current theory.

Further research was recommended to explore in greater depth the relationship between elder abuse and the physical and mental status of the elderly person for who care is provided in a family environment. Further research also was recommended with

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ysical and mental health (Naylor, Pritchard, & Ilgen, 1999). Stress research is traced to the formulation of the general adaptation syndrome in the 1930s by H. Selye (Kaplan & Sadock, 1997). As a medical student, Selye observed that most sick people appeared to have common characteristics, but that the "sickness syndrome" per se was not being studied (Selye, 1969, pp. 57-58). Selye based his theory on the concept of homeostasis, defined as the body's ability to maintain stability or constancy within its living organism. Selye (1950) extended the concept of homeostasis to damage resulting from the interaction of a force, or stressor, and the resistance, or adaptation, to that force. Selye (1950) eventually came to consider the possibility that a variety of damaging influences, or stressors, could produce the same reactions, or stress outcomes, within an organism. He theorized that, if it could be shown that the "organism had a general nonspecific reaction-pattern with which it could meet damage caused by a variety of à disease- producers," this response on the part of the organism "would lend itself to a strictly objective, à scientific analysis" (Selye, 1950, p. 31). Another significant contribution by Selye to str
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Approximate Word count = 9139
Approximate Pages = 37 (250 words per page)

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