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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.
Acknowledgements
Thanks are expressed to the Alzheimer Society of Canada for its support of the research reported in this study, to Julia Johnson for her able management of the data collection phase of this project, to the Baycrest Centre for Geriatric Care and Circle of Care for their collaboration, and to the study participants who were so generous with their time and goodwill.