Coping Among Hispanic Caregivers for Loved Ones With Alzheimer's
Coping Among Hispanic Caregivers for Loved Ones With Alzheimer's
Formidable communication and social support demands are placed on caregivers of family members with Alzheimer's disease (AD) or related dementia, especially among the growing Hispanic population. The goals of this study are to explore relational health communication competence, social support, and perceived general coping among Hispanic caregivers for family members having AD or related dementia; and to test the Relational Health Communication Competence Model using data obtained in Spanish and English. The results indicate that: Highly communication competent individuals are significantly more satisfied with the social support received than those with moderate/low communication competence; highly communication competent individuals maintain larger social networks than those with moderate/low communication competence; social support satisfaction is a better discriminator of high communication competence than the reported number of social network members; and highly communication competent individuals do not report a higher degree of perceived general coping than those with moderate/low communication competence. These results further reinforce the prior well-established finding that communication competence is an integral part of social support and perceived coping processes among lay caregivers of loved ones with AD or related dementia. Implications from these findings, key study limitations, and directions for future inquiry are examined.
Abstract and Introduction
Abstract
Formidable communication and social support demands are placed on caregivers of family members with Alzheimer's disease (AD) or related dementia, especially among the growing Hispanic population. The goals of this study are to explore relational health communication competence, social support, and perceived general coping among Hispanic caregivers for family members having AD or related dementia; and to test the Relational Health Communication Competence Model using data obtained in Spanish and English. The results indicate that: Highly communication competent individuals are significantly more satisfied with the social support received than those with moderate/low communication competence; highly communication competent individuals maintain larger social networks than those with moderate/low communication competence; social support satisfaction is a better discriminator of high communication competence than the reported number of social network members; and highly communication competent individuals do not report a higher degree of perceived general coping than those with moderate/low communication competence. These results further reinforce the prior well-established finding that communication competence is an integral part of social support and perceived coping processes among lay caregivers of loved ones with AD or related dementia. Implications from these findings, key study limitations, and directions for future inquiry are examined.
