Browsing by Subject "Dementia--Patients--Family relationships"
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Item Family caregivers' narratives of coping with chronic stress : is anything funny?(2009-05) Opitz, Marlana Kathryn; Wicker, FrankThis dissertation is a qualitative study of six daughter-caregivers' narratives of their experiences in caring for their mothers who were afflicted with a progressive dementia such as Alzheimer's disease. Many correlational and experimental studies have attempted to show whether humor can be utilized to reduce stress, or promote wellbeing. Results are mixed. This outcome is due in part to the ways different kinds of humor may function in different circumstances for different individuals. Few studies have analyzed directly how humor may function in circumstances where it is generated in a natural context that is potentially threatening to highly relevant personal values. The family caregiving context provides a setting for generating narratives about how individuals cope with such circumstances. This study analyzes six caregiver narratives in terms of personal problem-solving processes and emotion regulation under conditions of chronic stress. This study addresses how caregiver-humor may function in this context. These caregivers exhibited and reported a variety of non-humorous coping strategies such as problem-solving to change aspects of the situation where appropriate. They evaluated and changed thoughts, feelings, and attitudes to develop new meaning, to find benefits, and to develop more integrated frames of reference for meeting caregiving challenges. Caregiver humor was embedded in this natural problem-solving process. This study extends support for the contentions from prior research and theory that humor can, under certain conditions, support stress relief and the development of attitudes that are conducive to promoting increased well-being in situations that seriously challenge or threaten valued outcomes. The personal experience narratives of these participants provide evidence that supports many humor theories and extends the range of their application. Participants utilized humor in ways that confront and to some extent resolve the incongruities of caregiving by regulating emotion and motivation, and by celebrating mastery and adaptation to life's challenges. The data support the proposition that, specifically, humor may diminish the impact of negative affect, and boost the motive power of positive affect in problem-solving processes.Item Korean American dementia caregivers' attitude toward caregiving: the role of culture(2007-12) Lee, Youjung, 1977-; Greene, Roberta R. (Roberta Rubin), 1940-The purpose of this study was to explore how Korean American caregivers view dementia caregiving and analyze the role of culture in their attitude toward caregiving. Demographic characteristics, stressor factors, social support factors, and cultural factors were examined in the model. Stressor factors were measured by care receivers' problem behaviors, duration of caregiving, and amount of caregiving. Social support factors were composed of the amount of social support and the quality of social support. Cultural factors included level of acculturation, years in the U.S., filial piety, and familism. The study compared a group of spouse caregivers with a group of children providing care in order to investigate the differences in their attitude toward caregiving. In addition, the interaction effect between social support and acculturation on dementia caregiver's attitude toward caregiving was examined. Eighty five Korean American dementia caregivers participated in the survey through a convenience sampling method. Among the Korean American dementia caregivers, child caregivers showed a more positive attitude toward caregiving then spouse caregivers. The effects of social support on caregivers' attitude toward caregiving did not vary with the level of acculturation. Hierarchical multiple regression analysis indicated that, among the study factors including stressor factors, social support factors, and cultural factors, only social support factors contributed significantly to Korean American dementia caregivers' positive attitude toward caregiving. Among the predictors of Korean American dementia caregivers' attitude toward caregivng, the amount of caregiving per day was the most significant variable, followed by the quality of social support and care receivers' problem behaviors. Higher levels of daily caregiving and higher quality of social support were positively related to positive attitude toward caregiving. A higher level of care receivers' problem behaviors was negatively related to positive attitude toward caregiving. Comparison of the beta coefficients from the spouse caregiver group and nonspouse caregiver group revealed that there was a discrepancy of predictors of Korean American caregivers' attitude toward caregiving between the two caregiving groups. The model had a better fit for immigrant spouse caregiver groups indicated by significantly different R² from spouse caregivers and non-spouse caregivers, 85% and 33%, respectively. The results of this study imply the importance of incorporating cultural diversity in social policy. Because of the salient findings in this study, inclusion of content on increasing and enhancing quality of social support is recommended for social work practice with Korean American dementia caregivers.