Wives' coping flexibility, time since husbands' injury and the perceived burden of wives of men with traumatic brain injury.
OBJECTIVE
To examine the moderating effect of wives' coping flexibility on the relation between time since husband's traumatic brain injury (TBI) and wives' perceived burden and the hypotheses that wives of long duration TBI men and wives with less coping flexibility will express more burden than wives of short duration burden men and wives with more coping flexibility.


METHODS
Forty-four wives whose husbands had sustained brain injury were interviewed 1 year or more after hospital discharge.


METHODS
The Relatives' Burden Questionnaire and Ways of Coping Questionnaire for each of four different problem vignettes were administered to the wives.


CONCLUSIONS
No statistically significant effects were found for TBI duration or for wives' coping flexibility, although longer duration TBI wives reported a statistically significant higher level of burden than short duration TBI wives, only if the wives were characterized by low coping flexibility.
Katz
Shlomo
S
Department of Psychology, Bar-Ilan University, Ramat-Gan, Israel. katzsh2@mail.biu.ac.il
Kravetz
Shlomo
S
Grynbaum
Fabian
F
D000223:Adaptation, Psychological; D000328:Adult; D001930:Brain Injuries / Q000451:nursing* / Q000523:psychology; D017028:Caregivers / Q000523:psychology*; D017281:Cost of Illness; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011594:Psychometrics; D018454:Spouses / Q000523:psychology*; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D013997:Time Factors