Stress-buffering Effect of Coping Strategies on Interrole Conflict among Family Caregivers of People with Dementia.

Objectives: To examine the stress-buffering effect of coping strategies on the adverse effects of interrole conflict on the mental health of employed family caregivers, and clarify the moderating role of attentional control on this stress-buffering effect.

Methods: Data were drawn from a two-wave longitudinal online survey of employed Japanese family caregivers of people with dementia (263 males, 116 females; age 51.54 ± 9.07 years). We assessed interrole conflict, coping strategies, attentional control, mental health variables (psychological strain and quality of life), and confounding factors.

Results: Hierarchical regression analyses controlled for sociodemographic factors found formal support seeking had a stress-buffering effect for strain- and behavior-based caregiving interfering with work (CIW) only on psychological strain, and was moderated by attentional control. Single slope analysis showed higher CIW was related to higher psychological strain in those with greater use of formal support seeking and lower attentional control, but not in those with higher attentional control.

Conclusions: Greater use of formal support seeking weakens the adverse effects of strain- and behavior-based CIW on psychological strain in people with high attentional control.

Clinical Implications: Attentional control is a key factor in the stress-buffering effect of formal support seeking on strain- and behavior-based CIW.