Caregiving Appraisals and Emotional Valence: Moderating Effects of Activity Participation

The present study examines the extent to which a two-factor model of affect explains how caregiving appraisals experienced by caregivers influence their own well-being. We used data from three waves of Nation Study of Caregiving (NSOC) to conduct latent growth curve models with the time-varying predictors to investigate the effect of between-person (BP) and within-person (WP) caregiving appraisals on positive and negative affect. Furthermore, we simultaneously modeled WP differences in activity participation and affective experience with multilevel modeling. Then, we tested the moderating effect of activity participation in the association between WP caregiving appraisals and emotional valence. We found that BP and WP caregiving negative appraisal also contribute to caregiver positive affect similar to that of negative affect. Time-varying effects of negative appraisals and emotional valence are consistent with the two-factor model. Future longitudinal investigations could target WP and BP activity participation to alleviate caregiving cognitive appraisal among caregivers.