The present study examined the moderating role of perceived social support in caregiver well-being indicators — psychological symptoms relationship. The data obtained from 100 caregivers of children with leukaemia revealed that the caregivers who were more able to satisfy their basic needs, and perform their daily activities, reported lower levels of psychological symptoms if they perceived higher levels of social support. However, perceived social support did not alleviate the level of psychological symptoms of the caregivers who reported lower levels of satisfaction of basic needs and performance on daily activities. The findings were discussed in the light of the literature.
Aiken LS and West SG ( 1991) Multiple Regression: Testing and Interpreting Interactions . Newbury Park: Sage Publications .
2.
Antonucci TC and Sherman AM ( 1997) Measures of social support and caregiver burden. Generations21(1): 48-52.
3.
Baron RM and Kenny DA ( 1986) The moderator - mediator variable distinction in social psychological research: Conceptual, strategic, and statistical considerations . Journal of Personality and Social Psychology51(6): 1173-1182.
4.
Barrera M., D’agostino NM, Gibson J., Gilbert T., Weksberg R. and Malkin D. ( 2004) Predictors and mediators of psychological adjustment in mothers of children newly diagnosed with cancer. Psycho-Oncology13: 630-641.
5.
Beck AT, Ward CH, Mendelson M., Mock J. and Erbaugh J. ( 1961) An inventory for measuring depression. Archives of General Psychiatry4: 561-571.
6.
Berg-Weger M., Rubio DM and Tebb SS ( 2000) The caregiver well-being scale revisited. Health and Social Work25(4): 255-263.
7.
Bozo Ö., Anahar S., Ates G. and Etel E. ( 2010) Effects of illness representation, perceived quality of information provided by the health-care professional, and perceived social support on depressive symptoms of the caregivers of children with leukemia . Journal of Clinical Psychology in Medical Settings17: 23-30.
8.
Bozo Ö., Gündoğdu E. and Büyükaşık-Çolak C. (2009) The moderating role of different sources of perceived social support on the dispositional optimism-posttraumatic growth relationship in postoperative breast cancer patients. Journal of Health Psychology14(7): 1009-1020.
9.
Cohen S. and Willis TA ( 1985) Stress, social support, and the buffering hypothesis. Psychological Bulletin98: 310-357.
10.
Cohen J., Cohen P., West SG and Aiken LS ( 2002) Applied Multiple Regression/Correlation Analysis for the Behavioral Sciences. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
11.
Demirtepe D. and Bozo Ö. ( 2009) Caregiver Well-being Scale: A study of validity and reliability . Turkish Psychological Articles12(23): 28-37.
12.
Derogatis LR ( 1977) Confirmation of the dimensional structure of the SCL-90: A study in construct validation. Journal of Clinical Psychiatry33: 981-989.
13.
Eker D. and Arkar H. ( 1995) The factor structure, validity, and reliability of Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support. Turkish Journal of Psychology34: 45-55.
14.
Eker D., Arkar H. and Yaldız H. ( 2001) The factor structure, validity, and reliability of revised Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support. Turkish Journal of Psychiatry12(1): 17-25.
15.
Ergh TC, Hanks RA, Rapport LJ and Coleman RD ( 2003) Social support moderates caregiver life satisfaction following traumatic brain injury. Journal of Clinical and Experimental Neuropsychology25(8): 1090-1101.
16.
Frank NC, Brown RT, Blount RL and Bunke V. ( 2001) Predictors of affective responses of mothers and fathers of children with cancer. Psycho-oncology10: 293-304.
17.
Gracia E. and Herrero J. ( 2004) Personal and situational determinants of relationship-specific perceptions of social support. Social Behavior and Personality32(5): 459-476.
18.
Hobfoll SE and Vaux A. ( 1993) Social support: Social resources and social context. In: Breznitz S (ed.) Handbook of Stress: Theoretical and Clinical Aspects. New York: The Free Press, 685-705.
19.
Holland JC ( 1992) Psycho-oncology: Overview, obstacles and opportunities . Psycho-oncology1: 1-13.
20.
Kazak AE, Barakat LP, Meeske K., Christakis D., Meadows AT, Casey R. et al. (1997) Posttraumatic stress, family functioning, and social support in survivors of childhood leukemia and their mothers and fathers . Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology65(1): 120-129.
21.
Keene N. ( 2002) Childhood Leukemia: A Guide for Families, Friends and Caregivers (3rd edn). Sebastopol : O’Reilly.
22.
Kim J., Han JY, Shaw B., McTavish F. and Gustafson D. ( 2010) The roles of social support and coping strategies in predicting breast cancer patients’ emotional well-being: Testing mediation and moderation models. Journal of Health Psychology15(4): 543-552.
23.
Lu L. ( 2011) Leisure and depression in midlife: A Taiwanese national survey of middle-aged adults. Journal of Health Psychology16(1): 137-147.
24.
Maslow AH ( 1954) Motivation and Personality. New York : Harper and Row.
25.
Matthews BA, Baker F. and Spillers RE ( 2003) Family caregivers and indicators of cancer-related distress . Psychology, Health & Medicine8(1): 45-57.
26.
McGrath P. ( 2001) Identifying support issues of parents of children with leukemia. Cancer Practice9(4): 198-205.
27.
Norberg AN, Lindblad F. and Boman KK ( 2006) Support seeking, perceived support and anxiety in mothers and fathers after children’s cancer treatment. Psycho-oncology15: 335-343.
28.
Pearlin LI, Mullan JT, Semple SJ and Skaff MM ( 1990) Caregiving and the stress process: An overview of concepts and their measures. The Gerontologist30(5): 583-594.
29.
Pierce GR, Sarason BR and Sarason IG ( 1996) Coping and social support. In: Zeidner M and Endler NS (eds) Handbook of Coping: Theory, Research, Applications. New York: Wiley, 434-451.
30.
Raina P., O’Donnell M., Rosenbaum P., Brehaut J., Walter SD, Russell D. et al. (2005) The health and well-being of caregivers of children with cerebral palsy. Pediatrics115(6): 626-636.
31.
Ryan RM and Solky JA (1996) What is supportive about social support? On the psychological needs for autonomy and relatedness. In: Pierce GR and Sarason BR (eds) Handbook of Social Support and the Family. Plenum Series on Stress and Coping. New York: Plenum Press, 249-267.
32.
Scrandis DA ( 2005) Normalizing postpartum depressive symptoms with social support. Journal of the American Psychiatric Nurses Association11(4): 223-230.
33.
Spielberger CD, Gorsuch RL and Lushene RD (1970) STAI: Manual for the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory. Palo Alto: Consulting Psychologists Press.
34.
Swickert RJ and Hittner JB ( 2009) Social support coping mediates the relationship between gender and posttraumatic growth. Journal of Health Psychology14(3): 387-393.
35.
Swickert RJ, Hittner JB and Foster A. ( 2010) Big Five traits interact to predict perceived social support . Personality and Individual Differences48: 736-741.
36.
Şahin NH and Durak A. ( 1994) Brief symptom inventory: Adaptation for Turkish youth . Turkish Journal of Psychology31: 44-56.
37.
Tsai SM and Wang HH ( 2009) The relationship between caregiver’s strain and social support among mothers with intellectually disabled children. Journal of Clinical Nursing18: 539-548.
38.
Vella-Brodrick DA and Allen FC ( 1995) Development and psychometric validation of the mental, physical, and spiritual well-being scale. Psychological Reports77(2): 659-674.
39.
Vitaliano PP, Young HM and Zhang J. ( 2004) Is caregiving a risk factor for illness?Current Directions in Psychological Science13(1): 13-16.
40.
Wills TA and Shinar O. ( 2000) Measuring perceived and received social support. In: Cohen S, Underwood LG and Gottlieb BH (eds) Social Support Measurement and Intervention: A Guide for Health and Social Scientists. New York: Oxford University Press, 86-135.
41.
Zimet GD, Dahlem NW, Zimet SG and Farley GK ( 1988) The multidimensional scale of perceived social support . Journal of Personality Assessment52: 30-41.
