Page 22 - JCBP-1-2

Journal of Clinical and
Basic Psychosomatics Psychological control, sense of benefit, and burden on caregivers

divided into positive control sense and negative control compliance with ethical principles and maintaining quality
sense. Participants were asked to rate each item on a control. A total of 200 questionnaires were distributed to
scale encompassing “never (1 point),” “rarely (2) points,” caregivers, and 190 were recovered, resulting in a recovery
“occasionally (3),” “occasional (4),” “often (5),” “almost rate of 95%. One hundred and eighty-two questionnaires
always (6),” and “always (7).” A higher score on the positive were considered valid, leading to an effective rate of 95.8%.
control sense indicates a higher sense of psychological Regarding the age distribution of children with congenital
control. On the other hand, a higher score on the negative skeletal malformations, the majority of them fell within
control sense indicates a greater feeling of helplessness and the age range of 3 – 7 years old (37.9%) and 7 – 14 years
disappointment in response to stressful events, leading to old (37.4%). Children aged 0 – 3 years old accounted
a tendency to passively accept the result. In this study, the for 11.5%, while those aged 14 – 18 years old accounted
alpha coefficient of the general control sense scale was 0.85. for 13.2%. The distribution is influenced by factors such
as the typical age of hospitalization for children with
2.1.4. Care burden scale (ZBI) congenital diseases and the optimal surgical timing for
[15]
The care burden scale proposed by Zarit in 1985 has children with congenital skeletal deformities, which tends
been widely used in various caregiver groups, including to be 4 – 8 years old. Among the 182 caregivers surveyed,
caregivers of elderly people with dementia, disabled their ages ranged from 27 to 56 years old. The majority of
elderly, Parkinson’s disease patients, cancer patients, caregivers were mothers, accounting for 65.4% (119), while
and other caregiving groups. The present study adopted fathers made up 31.9% (58) of the caregiver population.
the ZBI scale introduced by Wang et al. to assess the This distribution can be related to the traditional Chinese
[16]
caregiving burden. The ZBI scale comprises 22 items, cultural concept of “men leading the outside and women
divided into two dimensions: Role burden and personal leading the inside.” In terms of caregiver age, 49.5% were
burden. Participants were asked to rate each item on a aged 30 – 40 years old, 22.5% were aged 20 – 30 years old,
5-point scale, with response options encompassing “no and 23.6% were aged 40 – 50 years old.
(0),” “occasionally (1),” “sometimes (2),” “often (3),” and
“always (4).” The total score on the scale ranges from 0 to 88 2.4. Data analysis
points. A score <21 indicates no burden, 21 to 39 indicates The questionnaire coding, data input, and subsequent data
mild burden, 40 – 60 indicates moderate burden, and >60 processing and analysis were conducted using SPSS 22.0.
indicates severe burden, with an Alpha coefficient of 0.87. The significance level was set at P < 0.05 to determine
statistical significance, provided that the data met the validity
2.2. Study subjects and sample size conditions. Descriptive statistical analysis was conducted
In the present study, family caregivers of children with to provide basic characteristics of the study participants.
congenital skeletal malformations who were treated in the Three-scale score analysis and Pearson correlation analysis
pediatric orthopedics department at Shanghai L Hospital were employed to explore the correlation between three
from July 2021 to January 2022 were selected as participants continuous variables. Multiple regression analysis was
after obtaining consent from the relevant personnel conducted to identify factors affecting care burden.
involved in the caregiving process. Once inside the ward, A mediation effect test was conducted to explore whether
the medical social worker identified the eligible caregivers the sense of benefit played a mediating role. All P-values in
who expressed their willingness to participate in the survey. data analysis were subjected to the two-sided test.
Due to the limited number of children with congenital
skeletal malformation, the present study adhered to the 3. Results
principle of selecting one caregiver per family. To determine 3.1. Reliability and validity of the scale
the appropriate sample size, the rough estimation method
proposed by Shunzhen was employed . This method The care burden scale, benefit scale, sense of psychological
[17]
suggests a sample size that is 5 – 10 times the number of control scale, and the scores of each dimension are shown
independent variables. As this Zarit scale contains 22 in table.
items, and considering a potential 20% sample loss rate, the As shown in Table 1, the reliability and validity of the
minimum sample size required for this study was 115. care burden scale, benefits, and psychological control scale
are all greater than 0.6, with high credit validity.
2.3. Data collection
From July 2021 to January 2022, a face-to-face questionnaire 3.2. Correlation analysis of the variables
survey was conducted with the approval of the hospital and The current research used Pearson correlation analysis
department and the consent of the participants, ensuring to study the correlation between the three continuous

Volume 1 Issue 2 (2023) 3 https://doi.org/10.36922/jcbp.1041