Adaptation of a scale to measure coping strategies in informal primary caregivers of psychiatric patients.

WHAT IS KNOWN ON THE SUBJECT?: Informal caregivers of psychiatric patients are vulnerable to many disturbances associated with the stress related to their activity. Caregivers who show a coping style focused on problem-solving report less psychological distress, and this approach positively influences the recovery process of the psychiatric patient. There are some questionnaires to measure coping styles in caregivers of psychiatric patients, but most of them do not have the minimum psychometric properties that a scale must fulfil. WHAT THIS PAPER ADDS TO EXISTING KNOWLEDGE?: The authors present an adapted and validated scale for measuring both active and passive coping strategies used by informal caregivers to face daily stressful situations with psychiatric patients. The study is an example of how scales can be adapted to small samples (n < 200). WHAT ARE THE IMPLICATIONS FOR PRACTICE?: The scale could be helpful for generating strategies to support the family caregiver, as well as for measuring the results of interventions. The scale could also be used to identify how coping styles of informal caregivers are related to recovery process of psychiatric patients.

ABSTRACT: Background The recovery process of a psychiatric patient is related to his primary informal caregiver's style of coping with stress. There is insufficient literature on validations of instruments that measure coping styles in this population. Objective To adapt and validate a scale to measure coping strategies in primary informal caregivers. Method The adapted scale was based on the Extreme Coping Scale of López-Vázquez and Marván. Items from that scale were adapted for application to informal caregivers. The scale was administered to 122 primary informal caregivers of patients from two psychiatric institutions in Mexico. Psychometric analyses were performed to determine the scale's properties. Results The scale was composed of 20 items (six less than in the original scale) and two factors: (i) active coping (Cronbach's alpha = .837) and (ii) passive coping (Cronbach's alpha = .718). Discussion The findings are discussed in the light of the importance of studying the relationship between coping styles and the well-being of both informal caregivers and psychiatric patients. Implications for practice The scale could be used by health practitioners and researchers to generate strategies to support the family caregiver, as well as to measure the results of interventions.