Socio-demographics, social support and coping with caregiving stress among caregivers of Chronically-ill children in Jinja Regional Referral Hospital (Nalufenya Ward)

Abstract

The diagnosis of a chronic illness is stressful and is characterized by physical, sensory, intellectual or psychosocial impairment affecting the family system, requiring additional resources and adaptations in care and re-examination of family dynamics during treatment. Caregivers are often faced with various forms of stress taking on different coping behaviors to deal with this lasting ailment. A cross sectional mixed methods study approach was conducted to investigate the effects of caregivers’ socio demographics and social support on coping with caregiving stress. Semi-structured interviewer administered questionnaire using “The Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support” and “The Brief Cope” were used to collect quantitative data from 174 caregivers of chronically ill children at Jinja regional referral hospital (Nafufenya ward). Quantitative data included; caregivers’ socio demographics, sources and forms of social support and coping. In-depth interviews were conducted with 10 purposively selected caregivers out of 174 to collect qualitative data. Questions exploring caregivers’ lived experiences were used to learn how they were coping with the stress. SPSS was used to analyze quantitative data and inductive thematic analysis was conducted for qualitative data. The study found out that as a caregiver advanced in age, coping dropped. Female caregivers cope better than men, as indicated by (M = 52.9, SD = 6.97) compared to the male caregivers (M = 49.3, SD = 4.66). The women demonstrated significantly better means of coping with stress, t (174) = -3.36, p=0.001, and the caregiver’s relationship to the recipient (Child) as indicated by, t (174) = 0.62, p = 0.53 had no effect on how they coped with the stress. Caregivers that were receiving social support from family and friends coped better with the stress unlike their counterparts who did not receive social support. In conclusion, mechanisms that are targeted at facilitating caregivers’ coping with caregiving stress should be tailored to their socio demographics and maximize social support from family and friends.