Burden of Care and Subjective Well-Being Mediated by Empathy and Hardiness Among Parents of Physically Challenged Children

Current study is aimed to investigate the link between caregiving burden and subjective well-being (SWB) and to further find out whether both empathy and hardiness mediate this link in parents of physically challenged children. Sample (N = 120) consists of parents of physically challenged children (Fathers n = 60) and (Mothers

n = 60) by using purposive sampling technique. The main instruments utilized in the study were The Burden Scale for Family Caregivers (Graessel et al., 2014), Tornoto Empathy Questionnaire (Spreng et al., 2009), Psychological Well-Being Scale (Ryff & Keyes, 1995), and Dispositional Resilience Scale (Bartone, 1995). Literature suggested a negative association between burden of care and subjective wellbeing. However, there is a lack of knowledge whether hardiness as well as empathy mediates this relationship between these two variables. Findings of the current study confirmed an inverse correlation between caregiving burden and SWB. Results also revealed that both empathy and hardiness mediated the correlation between caregiving burden and SWB. Findings also indicated that mothers were more empathetic as compared to fathers. Findings further showed a high level of SWB among male/father caregivers as compared to female/mother caregivers. Implications of the study were discussed.