Peer-reviewed article
Patterns of coping among caregivers of children with spinal cord injury: Associations with parent and child well-being.
Alicia M. January, Erin Hayes Kelly, Heather F. Russell, Kathy Zebracki, Lawrence Cabell Vogel ·
Summary
Written by AI, not yet AICS's view · claude-haiku-4-5-20251001This study examined how caregivers cope with the stress of having a child with spinal cord injury and how their coping patterns affect both their own mental health and their child's well-being. Researchers identified three distinct coping patterns among 318 caregivers: avoidant (using disengagement and blaming), constructive, and adjusted/low. Caregivers who used avoidant coping had significantly higher depression and anxiety, and their children also reported higher anxiety, depression, and lower emotional quality of life.
Key points
- Three distinct caregiver coping patterns were identified: avoidant (n=47), constructive (n=119), and adjusted/low (n=152)
- Avoidant coping (disengagement and blaming strategies) was significantly associated with worse caregiver mental health outcomes
- Parental avoidant coping was linked to increased child anxiety (p=.002), depression (p<.005), and lower emotional quality of life (p<.001)
- Constructive and adjusted/low coping patterns were associated with better psychosocial outcomes for both parents and children
- The study highlights the importance of fostering positive coping strategies in families managing childhood chronic illness
Limitations
This was a cross-sectional study, so it cannot establish whether parental coping patterns cause child outcomes or whether child outcomes influence parental coping. The study does not provide information about the effectiveness of interventions to improve coping patterns.
Abstract
INTRODUCTION: Few studies have investigated how caregivers manage stressors associated with their child's spinal cord injury (SCI) and how these patterns relate to their child's coping and adjustment. The current study explored empirically derived coping profiles among caregivers of youth with SCI and the relation of these patterns to parent and youth psychosocial outcomes. METHOD: This was a cross-sectional survey of 318 children (ages 1 to 18) and a primary caregiver. Participants completed measures assessing demographics, coping, quality of life (QOL), anxiety, and depression. We utilized hierarchical and nonhierarchical cluster analyses to identify unique coping patterns and one-way analysis of variance with control variables to assess relations between parental coping and psychosocial well-being. RESULTS: The analyses produced 3 parent coping clusters, which included avoidant (n = 47), constructive (n = 119), and adjusted/low (n = 152). ANCOVAs revealed that parents in the avoidant cluster, who utilized disengagement and blaming strategies, had significantly worse mental health symptoms compared to the constructive and adjusted low coping clusters. Specifically, avoidant coping was significantly related to increased symptoms of caregiver depression (p < .001) and anxiety (p < .001) as well as children's self-report of anxiety (p = .002), depression (p < .005) and emotional QOL (p < .001). DISCUSSION: These findings highlight the importance of fostering constructive and positive coping for both the children who face chronic illness and their caregivers. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved).