Table 6.
Positive and negative impacts of caring, experienced occasionally or frequently by family carers, friend carers, and family and friend carers.
| Family Carers (N 978) |
Friend Carers (N 655) |
Family & Friend Carers (N 466) |
||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| N | (%) | N | (%) | N | (%) | |
| Positive impacts: | ||||||
| Because of caring… | ||||||
| …I feel I am doing something good | 810 | (94.4) | 518 | (95.6) | 406 | (93.3) |
| …I feel that I am helping | 807 | (94.7) | 519 | (95.8) | 415 | (95.7) |
| …I feel closer to my family | 738 | (87.7) | 408 | (82.8) | 360 | (84.2) |
| …I feel good about myself | 700 | (83.3) | 453 | (87.0) | 327 | (76.9) |
| …I feel that I am learning useful things | 682 | (82.3) | 429 | (84.4) | 367 | (86.4) |
| …my parents are proud of the kind of person I am | 716 | (86.5) | 412 | (85.3) | 369 | (87.9) |
| …I like who I am | 653 | (81.0) | 418 | (83.9) | 304 | (72.3) |
| …I feel I am better able to cope with problems | 602 | (74.6) | 394 | (80.6) | 308 | (72.4) |
| …I feel I am useful | 718 | (88.1) | 416 | (85.9) | 355 | (83.5) |
| I feel good about helping | 773 | (93.3) | 473 | (92.8) | 391 | (91.1) |
| Negative impacts: | ||||||
| Because of caring… | ||||||
| …I have to do things that make me upset | 427 | (52.2) | 234 | (48.2) | 252 | (59.8) |
| …I feel stressed | 517 | (62.0) | 338 | (66.7) | 330 | (76.8) |
| …I feel like running away | 225 | (28.0) | 160 | (34.0) | 195 | (46.5) |
| …I feel very lonely | 286 | (35.5) | 164 | (34.5) | 227 | (53.2) |
| …I feel I can’t cope | 297 | (37.3) | 215 | (45.1) | 217 | (51.7) |
| …I can’t stop thinking about what I have to do | 415 | (51.2) | 262 | (55.8) | 278 | (65.6) |
| …I feel so sad I can hardly stand it | 256 | (32.0) | 158 | (33.9) | 199 | (47.4) |
| …I don’t think I matter | 221 | (27.7) | 142 | (30.3) | 172 | (41.1) |
| …life doesn’t seem worth living | 157 | (20.3) | 122 | (26.2) | 150 | (36.2) |
| …I have trouble staying awake | 267 | (34.0) | 168 | (35.7) | 194 | (46.3) |
Note: valid percentages are reported, which do not take account of missing data (i.e., those who did not answer the question or those who selected “not applicable”).