Resourcefulness, appraisals, and coping efforts of family caregivers

Abstract

Despite the large body of literature on caregiver stress, there has been a relative dearth of investigation of the experience of caregiving among African Americans. African Americans are currently the largest minority group in the United States and a rapidly growing segment of the American elderly population. Increasing evidence demonstrates the stressfulness of, as well as the variability in adaptation to, caregiving in this population. There are differences in individuals' psychological resources and coping with the caregiving experience, which to date are not well understood. This descriptive study examined similarities and differences in appraisals of behavior problems, resourcefulness, and coping efforts between 25 African American and 25 Anglo-American caregivers of relatives diagnosed with probable Alzheimer's disease. African American caregivers were found to have higher scores in resourcefulness than Anglo-American caregivers, and they reported benign appraisal of disruptive behavior in the impaired elders. No differences were found in caregivers' coping efforts.