Journal Article

Resilience, preparedness, and distress among family caregivers of patients with advanced cancer

Hendricks, Bailey A, Bakitas, Marie A, Taylor, Richard A, Dosse, Chinara K, Ejem Deborah, Engler, Sally, Bechthold, Avery C, Reed, Rhiannon D, Rosenberg, Abby R, McKie, Peggy, Wells, Rachel D, Nicholas, Dionne-Odom J, Azuero Andres, Harrell, Erin R

2021

Overview

ObjectiveResilience has been proposed as a primary factor in how many family caregivers of patients with advanced cancer are able to resist psychological strain and perform effectively in the role while bearing a high load of caregiving tasks. To evaluate this hypothesis, we examined whether self-perceived resilience is associated with distress (anxiety and depressive symptoms), caregiver preparedness, and readiness for surrogate decision-making among a racially diverse sample of family caregivers of patients with newly diagnosed advanced cancer.MethodsSecondary analysis of baseline data from two small-scale, pilot clinical trials that both recruited family caregivers of patients with newly diagnosed advanced cancer. Using multivariable linear regression, we analyzed relationships of resilience as a predictor of mood, caregiving preparedness, and readiness for surrogate decision-making, controlling for sociodemographics.ResultsCaregiver participants (N = 112) were mean 56 years of age and mostly female (76%), the patient’s spouse/partner (52%), and White (56%) or African-American/Black (43%). After controlling for demographics, standardized results indicated that higher resilience was relevantly associated with higher caregiver preparedness (beta = .46, p < .001), higher readiness for surrogate decision-making (beta = .20, p < .05) and lower anxiety (beta =  − .19, p < .05), and depressive symptoms (beta =  − .20, p < .05).ConclusionsThese results suggest that resilience may be critical to caregivers’ abilities to manage stress, be effective sources of support to patients, and feel ready to make future medical decisions on behalf of patients. Future work should explore and clinicians should consider whether resilience can be enhanced in cancer caregivers to optimize their well-being and ability to perform in the caregiving and surrogate decision-making roles.

• Publisher: Springer Nature B.V
• Subject: African Americans / Anxiety / Black white relations / Cancer / Caregiver burden / Caregivers / Caregiving / Clinical research / Clinical trials / Coping / Death & dying / Decision making / Demography / Emotions / Families & family life / Medical decision making / Mental depression / Mental health / Newly diagnosed / Palliative care / Patients / Personality traits / Psychological distress / Resilience / Resilience (Psychology) / Self concept / Sociodemographics / Stress management / Symptoms / Well being