| The present study focuses on the relationship between self-efficacy and coping styles in wife and daughter caregivers of dementia patients. The literature looking at these factors within sub-groups of caregivers, such as wives and daughters of dementia patients, is limited, but shows that due to the diverse effects Caregiving has on different populations (i.e. stress, burden, depression, etc.), wives and daughters do vary in their styles of coping and levels of self-efficacy. Archival data on spouse and daughter caregivers of Alzheimer's patients were used to address the following questions: (1) what is the relationship between self-efficacy and coping style in family caregivers? Specifically, will those who have low self-efficacy engage in more emotion-focused coping and conversely, will those with elevated self-efficacy engage in more problem-focused, or active, coping, and (2) Are there differences between wives and daughters in relation to self-efficacy and coping in the caregiving situation? 142 female caregivers were measured in both coping style and level of self-efficacy using the Revised Ways of Coping Checklist and Revised Scale for Caregiver Self-Efficacy, respectively. The present study was designed to compare two subgroups, wives and daughters, with respect to differences in coping style and self-efficacy. Results demonstrated that indeed those with higher self-efficacy engaged in more problem-focused coping behaviors as well as those with lower self-efficacy engaged mostly in emotion-focused coping behaviors. Differences between wives and daughters were insignificant and negligible, except in regards to the interaction between coping style and relationship status in terms of a subset of the self-efficacy measure (Self-Efficacy for Controlling Upsetting Thoughts about Caregiving) where it was found that daughters were more apt to maintain a higher level of self-efficacy while in engaging in problem-focused coping, when compared to wives. |
