Psychological resilience buffers the effects of care burden on depression and quality of life: a moderated mediation model in stroke caregivers

Stroke caregiving often places significant psychological burdens on informal caregivers, leading to heightened levels of depression and a diminished quality of life. Resilience has emerged as a potential psychological resource that may buffer the effects of caregiving stress. This study explored the moderating role of psychological resilience in the relationship between caregiver burden, depressive symptoms, and quality of life among stroke caregivers in Taiwan. Ninety-six informal caregivers of hospitalized stroke patients completed validated measures assessing caregiver burden, depression, psychological resilience, and quality of life. The results revealed a positive association between caregiver burden and depressive symptoms, along with a negative association with quality of life. Resilience was found to be inversely related to both burden and depression, while positively correlating with quality of life. Moderation analysis using PROCESS Macro indicated that resilience mitigated the impact of caregiver burden on depressive symptoms. Furthermore, a moderated mediation model demonstrated that depression mediated the relationship between burden and quality of life, with this indirect pathway significantly moderated by resilience. Notably, the indirect effect was more pronounced for caregivers exhibiting lower levels of resilience. These findings underscore the stress-buffering role of resilience in alleviating psychological distress, highlighting its importance for maintaining caregiver well-being. As this was a cross-sectional study, the findings reflect associations rather than causal effects. The implications of this research point to the potential for developing future psychosocial interventions aimed at fostering resilience among caregivers across diverse sociocultural settings.