The relationship between spiritual perspective, social support, and depression in caregiving and noncaregiving wives.

The purpose of this study was to compare the relationships between spiritual perspective, social support, and depression in two groups of adults: caregiving wives of dementia victims and noncaregiving wives of healthy adults. Hypotheses predicted that increased spiritual perspective would be associated with increased social support and decreased depression in caregiving wives. Hypotheses also predicted that spiritual perspective would be more strongly associated with these variables in caregiving wives. Spiritual perspective was not significantly related to social support or depression in the caregivers. The relationships between these variables, however, were noted to be stronger in caregiving wives than in noncaregivers. Employment and increased availability of support were associated with decreased depression in caregivers.