Impact of a psychoeducational program on three types of caregiver burden among spouses Marie Y. Savundranayagam 1, y , Rhonda J. V. Montgomery 1z , Karl Kosloski 2x and Todd D. Little 3ô 1 Helen Bader School of Social Welfare, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, P.O. Box 786, Milwaukee, WI, USA 2 Department of Gerontology, University of Nebraska at Omaha, 6001 Dodge St., Omaha, NE, USA 3 Department of Psychology, Director, Quantitative Training program, Scientific Director, Research, Design, and Analysis Unit, Schiefelbusch Institute for Life Span Studies, University of Kansas, 1415 Jayhawk Blvd. Lawrence, KS, USA Correspondence to: M. Y. Savundranayagam, E-mail: maries@uwm.edu y Assistant Professor. z Professor and Helen Bader Endowed Chair in Applied Gerontology. § Professor. ô Professor and Reynolds Professor of Public Affairs and Community Service. Purpose: The purpose of this study was to investigate the extent to which a psychoeducational intervention called ‘‘Powerful Tools for Caregivers’’ (PTC) influences burden of spouse caregivers. Specifically, this study examined whether spouse caregivers who attended PTC exhibited reductions in stress burden, relationship burden, and objective burden compared to a comparison group. Design and Methods: The 6 week intervention used a self-efficacy framework to train caregivers to focus on self-care, communicate effectively, and manage emotions. This quasi-experimental study included 115 participants from the PTC group and 95 participants from a comparison group. Assessments were completed before and after the intervention for the PTC group and within a 6 week time period for the comparison group. Results: Analyses using structural equation modeling showed that participants in the PTC group reported significantly lower levels of stress and objective burden than the comparison group. There were no group differences in relationship burden. Implications: The findings indicate that PTC can be an effective resource for reducing psychological distress and objective burden among spouses caring for disabled partners. Copyright # 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Key words: caregiver intervention; psychoeducational; relationship burden; objective burden History: Received 12 January 2010; Accepted 26 March 2010; Published online 22 July 2010 in Wiley Online Library (wileyonlinelibrary.com). DOI: 10.1002/gps.2538 Introduction The distressing impact of caregiving on mental and physical health is notable in spouses/partners. Com- pared to other family members, spouses perform more personal care tasks (Marks et al., 2002) and receive less help (Bedard, Kuzik, Chambers, Molley, Dubois & Lever, 2000). Spouses, especially wives, tend to be the last to relinquish care to professionals and experience more negative effects from caregiving than other family caregivers (Young and Kahana, 1989; Seltzer and Li, 2000). Psychoeducational programs are one of the most common types of interventions that address caregiver well-being (So ¨rensen et al., 2002). Many vary in content and format, and have multifaceted curricula offered in 2–3 hours sessions over 4–6 weeks. They cover topics on caregiving roles, care contexts, and skill building. They frequently include group activities that normalize caregiving experiences and build a support RESEARCH ARTICLE Copyright # 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Int J Geriatr Psychiatry 2011; 26: 388–396.