Dementia Caregivers’ Coping Strategies and Their Relationship to Health and Well-Being: The Cache County Study
Open accessAbstract
OBJECTIVES: Prior research identifies that psychological outcomes among dementia caregivers are associated with their use of coping strategies. Few studies have tested the association of coping and health longitudinally. METHOD: This study examined factors associated with the use of coping strategies over time and their associations with physical and mental health outcomes in a population-based sample of 226 dementia caregivers in Cache County, Utah, USA. Caregivers annually completed the Ways of Coping Checklist-Revised, the Beck Anxiety Inventory, and a health interview. Care-recipient cognitive and functional abilities were obtained using the Mini-Mental State Exam and the Clinical Dementia Rating. Neuropsychiatric symptoms were assessed using the Neuropsychiatric Inventory. RESULTS: Caregivers most frequently identified providing care as a problem (37.6%). Linear mixed models of caregiver coping strategies found that the use of most strategies were stable except for increasing Avoidance among adult child caregivers (β = 0.14, p = 0.048). On average, increased Wishful Thinking (β = 2.48, p < 0.001) or Blames Self (β = 1.06, p = 0.002) was associated with higher anxiety scores. Increased use of Blames Others among males (interaction, β = 0.28, p = 0.02) and greater use of Wishful Thinking among younger caregivers (interaction, β = -0.01, p = 0.01) were associated with more caregiver health conditions. Coping strategies were not associated with change in anxiety or health conditions over time. CONCLUSION: Our results emphasize the importance of caregiver coping strategies on caregiver health and well-being and may identify subgroups of persons at risk for worse outcomes.
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Wishful thinking and self-blame are associated with caregiver anxiety and male caregiver health problems.
“an association of wishful thinking and self-blame with caregiver anxiety and male caregiver health problems was found [14].”
From Mindfulness-Based Intervention for Caregivers of Frail Older Chinese Adults: A Study Protocol (2022) · cites this paper as [14]
The Results section on anxiety reports that Wishful Thinking and Blames Self were both associated with greater caregiver anxiety. The Results section on health conditions instead links male caregivers’ greater number of health conditions to Blames Others, not self-blame. Thus the anxiety finding is supported, but the male-health portion misidentifies the coping strategy; page numbers were not provided. (LLM, conf=0.90)
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Anxiety in Informal Dementia Carers: A Meta-Analysis of Prevalence
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“In a longitudinal study of caregiver coping strategies, an association of wishful thinking and self-blame with caregiver anxiety and male caregiver health problems was found [14].”
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“…preferred problem-focused coping strategies over emotion-focused ones, consistent with studies involving caregivers of individuals with dementia, Alzheimer’s disease, and schizophrenia [52–56], which have reported problem-focused coping as a primary adaptive approach for managing stress.”
- Authors
- Snyder, C. M., Fauth, E., Wanzek, J., Piercy, K. W., Norton, M. C., Corcoran, C., Rabins, P. V., Lyketsos, C. G., & Tschanz, J. T.
- Affiliations
- Utah State University (US)
- Johns Hopkins University (US)
- Corresponding author
- Tschanz, JoAnn T.
- Venue
- Aging & Mental Health
- Publisher
- Informa UK Limited
- Published
- 2014-08-05
- Volume
- 19
- Issue
- 5
- Pages
- 390-399
- ISSN
- 1360-7863 (ISSN-L)
- 1364-6915
- PMC
- PMC4845636
- OpenAlex
- W2015677371
- Cited by
- 63
- References
- 55
- Citations by year
- 2026: 6 · 2025: 2 · 2024: 6 · 2023: 6 · 2022: 9 · 2021: 9 · 2020: 6 · 2019: 6 · 2018: 6 · 2016: 5 · 2015: 2
- FWCI
- 1.77
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
- Locations
- Aging & Mental Health (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- PubMed Central (acceptedVersion)
- Funders
- National Institute on Aging (R01AG011380, R01AG021136)
- Topics
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Psychiatry and Mental health › Dementia and Cognitive Impairment Research
- Health Sciences › Health Professions › Pharmacy › Nursing care and research
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Grief, Bereavement, and Mental Health
- Keywords
- dementia caregivers, coping strategies, caregiver health, caregiver well-being, anxiety, wishful thinking, blaming others, avoidance, neuropsychiatric symptoms, adult child caregivers, gender differences, age differences
- MeSH terms
- Adaptation, Psychological, Aged, Anxiety, Dementia, Female, Health Status, Humans, Longitudinal Studies, Male, Mental Health, Neuropsychological Tests, Parent-Child Relations, Stress, Psychological, Caregivers, Disease Progression
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