Integrating Multiple Roles: The Social Context of Spousal Cancer Caregiving

Cancer family caregiving is a growing issue in the US. Several widely used conceptual models focused on the cancer caregiving experience highlight the importance of context as a mechanism for how the care experience impacts caregiver and patient outcomes. However, fewer studies explore how the existing social context, including pre-existing roles and prior experiences with care, can impact conceptualisation of a current caregiving role.

Our goal was to identify how spouse caregivers frame their caregiving role and experience within their existing roles and social contexts.

We performed a secondary qualitative analysis using a hybrid approach of deductive and inductive coding to identify themes in interviews from spouses of patients with advanced cancer.

Interviews from 30 heterosexual spousal caregivers were analysed. Most caregivers were White (87%) and female (83%), with a mean age of 66.63 (SD = 10.29) years. Caregiving experiences were contextualised within the following themes: caregiving role within a spousal role, formative experiences and social interactions and influence.

Caregivers' various roles, including that of spouse, and prior experiences and interactions helped them to make sense of their caregiving role, create meaning and help shape expectations. Our analysis works towards a more nuanced, complex integration of caregiving history and its role in a broader social context. Future work should continue to explore specific contextual aspects of caregiving; a broader ecological model of caregiving could be useful in theory and practice.