Exploring family stigma among caregivers of persons with Alzheimer's disease: The experiences of Israeli-Arab caregivers

Abstract

Providing care to persons with Alzheimer's disease poses challenges for spouses and adult children, including experiencing stigmatic beliefs towards themselves—i.e., family stigma. Drawing on the frameworks of ethnicity and stigma and ethnicity and dementia, the current study explored stigmatic experiences among Israeli Arab family caregivers of a person with Alzheimer's disease. Three focus groups with 20 caregivers (adult children and spouses) of persons with Alzheimer's disease were conducted. Data were analyzed using theory-led thematic analysis. Caregivers reported experiencing family stigma in two dimensions: public and affiliate stigma, in both the existence of an attribution process in which cognitive stereotypes elicit negative and positive emotions which in turn provoke behavioral attributions, was evident. Family stigma was found to be a discernible feature of everyday reality among Israeli Arab caregivers of persons with Alzheimer's disease and stress the importance of developing management strategies that are tailored to the socio-cultural characteristics of the caregivers.