| The purpose of this study was to examine how spirituality may influence the level of depressive symptoms, caregiver burden, and the coping capacity of family caregivers of Alzheimer's disease victims. A nonrandom purposive sample of 39 caregivers was used. The sample was selected from the clients of Orange Caregiver Resource Center in Fullerton, California. Analysis was conducted to determine relationships between (a) spiritual well-being and depression, (b) spiritual well-being and caregiver burden, (c) caregiver burden and depression, (d) spiritual well-being and spiritual coping mechanisms, and (e) subjects' characteristics, spiritual well-being and spiritual coping mechanisms.; The findings indicated that there is a significant positive relationship between depression and caregiver burden. Caregivers who had a higher level of spiritual well-being had a lower level of depression, lower level of emotional strain and higher usage of spiritually-based coping mechanisms. The female respondents and unmarried respondents had higher spiritual well-being, and white respondents had lower spiritual well-being than other ethnic respondents. The findings suggest a need for social workers to engage in client assessment and a treatment process which incorporates spirituality into the more traditional areas of caregivers' mental health. |
