The relationship between the rewards, costs, and coping strategies of black family caregivers

Abstract

This study was designed to describe the relationship between perceived rewards, costs, and coping strategies of black family caregivers who provided care to an elderly demented relative. Selection of coping strategies is predicated on a continuous transaction between the caregiver's appraisal of what is at stake for the caregiver in the caregiving situation and her personal resources (Folkman & Lazarus, 1980). However, research studies have suggested the caregiver's ethnicity, household income, relationship to the carereceiver, carereceiver's geographic area of residence, and the caregiving demands may serve as confounding variables. Most caregiver studies have either used predominantly white samples or treated black subjects as a homogeneous group. Therefore, the relationship of rewards, costs, and coping strategy selection with controls for the above confounding variables in an all black sample has not been done. Face-to-face interviews of 83 black female caregivers of elderly demented relatives were conducted. Coping was measured by the Jalowiec Coping Scale, rewards from the Picot Caregiver Rewards Scale, and costs from the Cost of Care Index. The demographics form included caregiver-carereceiver relationship, caregiver household income, and carereceiver geographic area of residence. The Modified Wood's Social Support Questionnaire measured the perceived quality of social support; and the Texas Research Institute of Mental Sciences Behavioral Problem Checklist evaluated caregiving demands. The seven major predictors (together) accounted for a significant amount of the overall variance in selected coping strategies, palliative emotive, confrontive active, positive thinking, problem analysis, and social support use coping. When the influences of all of the variables were removed except rewards and costs, the overall variance in palliative emotive coping, positive thinking, and problem analysis was significantly explained by rewards and costs. Caregiving demands and perceived quality of social support emerged as major predictors of total coping and social support use. Caregiver household income was a major predictor of both confrontive active and palliative emotive coping. Costs, also, predicted palliative emotive coping. Rewards were the most influential predictors of both positive thinking and problem analysis. Neither caregiver-carereceiver relationship nor carereceiver geographic area of residence emerged as significant predictors of either total coping score or individual coping strategies.