title: Coping styles and social support among depressed Chinese family caregivers of patients with esophageal cancer.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To determine the coping styles of family caregivers of patients with esophageal cancer and examine the relationships between depression, coping styles and social support.
  
  
  METHODS
  A descriptive and correlational survey was conducted in three university-affiliated oncology and thoraco-cardiac surgery departments in Shiyan, China. A convenience sample of 301 Chinese family caregivers of hospitalized patients with esophageal cancer were asked to respond to a set of four questionnaires including: Socio-demographic questionnaire, Center for Epidemiological Studies Depression, Brief COPE Inventory, and Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support.
  
  
  RESULTS
  For the positive coping style, male caregivers used more problem-coping than female caregivers. However, for negative coping, both male and female caregivers used maladaptive coping styles. There were significant correlations between emotion-focused coping styles with adaptive coping, maladaptive coping, depression and social support.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Family caregivers play a major role in caring for cancer patients and suffer from various psycho-social problems. What is lacking in the literature was to address the cultural differences in cancer caregiving burden, roles, and appropriate interventions to help them face the multiple demands of caregiving. Therefore, a need to develop and evaluate interventions using randomized clinical trials and sensitive instruments to measure the effectiveness of the intervention on patients' and caregivers' outcomes.
authors.affiliation: Department of Nursing, Union Hospital of Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, 1277 Jiefang Avenue, Wuhan, Hubei Province 430022, China; School of Nursing, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, 13 Hangkong Road, Wuhan, Hubei Province 430030, China.
authors.forename: Yanhong
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Han
authors.affiliation: Department of Nursing, Union Hospital of Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, 1277 Jiefang Avenue, Wuhan, Hubei Province 430022, China.
authors.forename: Deying
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Hu
authors.affiliation: Department of Nursing, Union Hospital of Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, 1277 Jiefang Avenue, Wuhan, Hubei Province 430022, China.
authors.forename: Yilan
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.affiliation: Department of Nursing, Union Hospital of Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, 1277 Jiefang Avenue, Wuhan, Hubei Province 430022, China.
authors.lastname: Caihong Lu
authors.affiliation: Department of Clinical Oncology, Taihe Hospital, Hubei University of Medicine, 32 Renmin South Road, Shiyan, Hubei Province 442000, China.
authors.forename: Zhiguo
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Luo
authors.affiliation: Department of Clinical Oncology, Taihe Hospital, Hubei University of Medicine, 32 Renmin South Road, Shiyan, Hubei Province 442000, China.
authors.forename: Jing
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Zhao
authors.affiliation: Alice Lee Centre for Nursing Studies, Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, National University of Singapore, Level 2, Clinical Research Centre, Block MD 11, 10 Medical Drive, Singapore 117597, Singapore.
authors.forename: Violeta
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Lopez
authors.affiliation: School of Nursing, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, 13 Hangkong Road, Wuhan, Hubei Province 430030, China. Electronic address: maojing@mail.hust.edu.cn.
authors.forename: Jing
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Mao
mesh_terms: D000223:Adaptation, Psychological; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D044466:Asian People / Q000523:psychology*; D017028:Caregivers / Q000523:psychology*; D002681:China / Q000453:epidemiology; D015897:Comorbidity; D017281:Cost of Illness; D003863:Depression / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000517:prevention & control*; D004938:Esophageal Neoplasms / Q000451:nursing* / Q000523:psychology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D012944:Social Support; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors; D013223:Statistics as Topic; D013315:Stress, Psychological / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000523:psychology*; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires
keywords: Chinese; Coping; Depression; Esophageal cancer; Family caregivers; Social support