When is caregiving a burden? Listening to Mexican American women

Home care of a chronically mentally ill relative exerts substantial physical and emotional demands on a family member. Yet, little work has examined the perspective about caregiving voiced by individuals from different ethnic groups and the comparison of this perspective with objective measures of caregiver burden. This article reviews findings from a study of 251 Mexican American and European American family caregivers of severely mentally ill relatives living in South Texas. Significant multivariate interaction effects of residence (rural/urban) and level of acculturation were found on caregiver stresses and coping responses, even when controlling for income. Analyses suggest differential vulnerability patterns for caregiver burden: In urban areas, Spanish-speaking Mexican Americans reported higher stress and greater coping efforts; whereas in rural areas, this was true instead for more acculturated Mexican Americans and European Americans. Discussion addresses differences in report of burden between standardized scaled approaches and open-ended responses and explores how the nature of caregiver burden may vary along contextual lines.