Coping effectiveness: determinants and relevance to the mental health and affect of family caregivers of persons with dementia.
Family caregivers of persons with dementia (n = 141) rated their effectiveness in coping with a challenging symptom displayed by their relative, and completed measures of their ways of coping, their general (optimism) and specific (caregiving self-efficacy) outcome expectancies, their affect (positive and negative), and the mental health subscale of the SF-36. Hierarchical regression analyses revealed that coping effectiveness is more highly influenced by relatively stable outcome expectancies than by the ways of coping that are employed. In addition, optimism exerted a consistent and relatively strong impact on affect and mental health, overshadowing the influence of coping and judgments of its effectiveness. However, coping effectiveness not only had a significant main effect on the caregivers' mental health and negative affect, but also served a stress buffering function by reducing negative affect.
Gottlieb
B H
BH
University of Guelph, Ontario, Canada. bgottlie@uoguelph.ca
Rooney
J A
JA
D000223:Adaptation, Psychological; D000328:Adult; D000339:Affect; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D017028:Caregivers; D003704:Dementia / Q000628:therapy*; D005190:Family / Q000523:psychology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007600:Judgment; D008297:Male; D008605:Mental Health Services / Q000458:organization & administration; D008875:Middle Aged; D017063:Outcome Assessment, Health Care; D020377:Self Efficacy