Family attributions and coping in the prediction of emotional adjustment in family members of patients with first-episode schizophrenia.
OBJECTIVE
This study used a stress and coping framework to examine family members' emotional adjustment to caring for a patient with a first episode of schizophrenia.


METHODS
One family member providing primary assistance to each of 63 patients with a first episode of schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorder was interviewed shortly after patient hospitalization.


RESULTS
Overall, family members showed evidence of reasonably good emotional adjustment. Select indices of poorer emotional adjustment by family members were linked to (i) attributions in which the patient's psychiatric problems were viewed as a result of the patient's moral failings or psychological problems from earlier life, (ii) coping that was avoidant and (iii) patient management strategies that involved conflict avoidance and authoritarianism/reasoning.


CONCLUSIONS
These findings are consistent with psychoeducational interventions that educate family members about psychiatric illness and assist them in their efforts to cope with and manage patient problems at home.
Hinrichsen
G A
GA
Psychological Services and Geriatric Psychiatry Division, Hillside Hospital, North Shore-Long Island Jewish Health System, Glen Oaks, New York 11004, USA.
Lieberman
J A
JA
D000223:Adaptation, Psychological; D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000339:Affect; D005190:Family / Q000523:psychology*; D005191:Family Characteristics; D005192:Family Health; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D012559:Schizophrenia / Q000175:diagnosis*; D012917:Social Adjustment