Are there gender-specific differences between mothers and fathers caring for a schizophrenia patient?

Objective: The purpose of this study was to investigate differences between mothers and fathers of patients with schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorders concerning the time spent with the patients as well as other aspects of caring. Methods: 101 mothers and 101 fathers of the same patients suffering from schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorders according to ICD-10 were investigated. Results: The mean time spent in personal (i.e. face-to-face) or telephone contact with patients was significantly higher for mothers than for fathers. About the half of the mothers spent more time with the patients than the fathers, while 12% of fathers spent more time than the mothers. Among 40% of patients, mothers and fathers spent an equal amount of time for personal or telephone contact with the patients. Concerning other aspects of caring (legal representative of the patient, payment for patient's costs, caring for the patient's household) we could not find any differences between mothers and fathers. Conclusions: Concerning several aspects we could not confirm that mothers are more involved into the patients' care than the fathers. These findings are in contrast to the usual assumptions about familial caregivers based on the traditional gender-specific role models.