# Identifying Pathways Between Daily Stress and Long-Term Well-Being in Caregivers and Non-Caregivers

> **NIH NIH F31** · UNIVERSITY OF SOUTH FLORIDA · 2020 · $33,771

## Abstract

Stressful experiences are generally thought to be harmful to mental and physical health. This perspective has
guided research, informed policy, and colored the public narrative on the effects of caregiving for an impaired
older adult. Indeed, many studies find greater depression, higher negative affect, and lower life satisfaction in
caregivers (CGs) relative to non-caregivers (non-CGs).1,2 However, there is evidence that CGs experience
positive effects despite, or perhaps because of, their stressful experiences.3 Research also finds that CGs live
longer and are more resilient to perceived stress than non-CGs.4,5 Moreover, many CGs report psychological
benefits like increased meaning in life, growing closer to the care recipient, and learning new skills.6,7 In a
previous paper,8 the PI (Marino) suggested that these benefits reflect domains of eudaimonic well-being (EWB
- meaning in life, positive relationships, personal growth, environmental mastery, autonomy, and self-
acceptance) developed in positive psychology research9. Longitudinal change in EWB among CGs of impaired
older adults has not yet been studied. Higher EWB has also been linked to lower reactivity to stressors,10,11 but
has not been evaluated as an internal resource that promotes CGs' resilience to daily stress. The proposed
project will fill these gaps by examining links between caregiving status and multiple dimensions of well-being
including EWB, hedonic well-being (HWB - positive and negative affect and life satisfaction), and affective and
physiological reactivity to daily stress. We will obtain a sample of propensity-matched CGs and non-CGs from
the main survey of the population-based Midlife in the United States study and its daily diary study (the National
Study of Daily Experiences) to identify within- and between- group differences in 1) EWB and HWB, cross-
sectionally and over 20 years, and 2) exposure and reactivity to stressors over 8 days. In an exploratory aim, we
will apply novel machine learning techniques to identify diverse conditions associated with typologies of optimal
and sub-optimal well-being. The central hypothesis is that despite being associated with persistently lower HWB,
caregiving for an impaired older adult is linked to greater increases in EWB over time. Further, longitudinal gains
in EWB are predicted to weaken the association between stressor exposure and reactivity to daily stressors in
CGs. The project is expected to help shift the current CG well-being paradigm by applying robust methods from
developmental psychology to the caregiving context and generating novel information about how caring for an
aging adult might affect well-being both negatively and positively, concurrently and over time. Findings can inform
new psychological interventions that target EWB as a pathway to increasing resilience to daily stressors. The
proposed training site will provide a scientific environment that is challenging and strongly supportive of the
proposed proj...

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10068660
- **Project number:** 1F31AG066434-01A1
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF SOUTH FLORIDA
- **Principal Investigator:** Victoria Marino
- **Activity code:** F31 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2020
- **Award amount:** $33,771
- **Award type:** 1
- **Project period:** 2020-09-10 → 2021-08-06

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10068660

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10068660, Identifying Pathways Between Daily Stress and Long-Term Well-Being in Caregivers and Non-Caregivers (1F31AG066434-01A1). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-23 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10068660. Licensed CC0.

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