Good Together Makes it Better? Psychological Distress, Relationship Quality, and Burnout in Informal Caregivers

Introduction: Informal caregiving can lead to burnout. The relationship between burnout and negative states has been the subject of extensive research. This study analyzes the mediation role of a positive psychological variable - the quality of the carer-patient relationship - between psychological distress and informal carers' burnout. Methods: We recruited Portuguese informal carers of adult cancer patients online (N = 92) to answer the Quality of Carer-Patient Relationship Scale gauging relationship quality, the Depression, Anxiety, and Stress Scales assessing psychological distress, and the Maslach Burnout Interview-Human Services Survey evaluating the dimensions of burnout, depersonalization, emotional exhaustion, and reduced personal accomplishment. The cross-sectional data were analyzed through descriptive statistics, correlations, multiple regressions, and simple mediation analysis. Results: Our results show that psychological distress variables directly affect burnout dimensions, and that relationship quality has a significant indirect effect on each burnout dimension, suggesting that relationship quality partially mediates the association between each distress dimension - depression, anxiety, and stress - and each of the burnout components - depersonalization, emotional exhaustion, and personal accomplishment. Discussion/Conclusion: This study underscores the importance of intervening in informal caregiver mental health and patient-caregiver relationships and encourages further investigation into the dynamics of the studied variables.