title: Burden among male Alzheimer's caregivers: effects of distinct coping strategies.
abstract: Focusing on the understudied, increasing population of male Alzheimer's disease (AD) caregivers, the purpose of this study was to identify their likelihood of utilizing 3 coping strategies (task focused, emotion focused, and avoidance focused) and to examine the effects of each coping strategy on caregiving burden. Data were collected from 138 male AD caregivers in southern United States, including geographically proportional representation of African Americans in the sample. Stepwise regression revealed effects of each coping strategy on caregiving burden, controlling for demographics. The sample reported high burden. Task focused was the highest reported coping strategy. Yet, regression models indicated no significant effect of task-focused coping on burden outcomes. Emotion-focused and avoidance-focused coping each showed significant proportional effects on burden. Implications suggest that emotion- and avoidance-focused coping among male AD caregivers may be maladaptive, that is, reinforcing burden. Male AD caregivers may benefit from more task-focused coping, such as planning and active problem solving.
authors.affiliation: Louisiana State University School of Social Work, Baton Rouge, LA, USA.
authors.forename: Jennifer R
authors.initials: JR
authors.lastname: Geiger
authors.affiliation: Louisiana State University School of Social Work, Baton Rouge, LA, USA swilks@lsu.edu.
authors.forename: Scott E
authors.initials: SE
authors.lastname: Wilks
authors.affiliation: Louisiana State University School of Social Work, Baton Rouge, LA, USA Baton Rouge General Medical Center, Baton Rouge, LA, USA.
authors.forename: Lauren L
authors.initials: LL
authors.lastname: Lovelace
authors.affiliation: Louisiana State University School of Social Work, Baton Rouge, LA, USA.
authors.forename: Zibei
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.affiliation: Department of Clinical Pharmacy, University of Tennessee Health Science Center, Memphis, TN, USA.
authors.forename: Christina A
authors.initials: CA
authors.lastname: Spivey
mesh_terms: D000223:Adaptation, Psychological / Q000502:physiology*; D000368:Aged; D000544:Alzheimer Disease / Q000451:nursing*; D017028:Caregivers / Q000523:psychology*; D017281:Cost of Illness; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged
keywords: Alzheimer’s disease; burden; caregiving; coping; male caregivers