Family Communication Patterns, Received Social Support, and Perceived Quality of Care in the Family Caregiving Context

Abstract

Family caregivers need greater support to provide optimal assistance to their care recipients. Using family communication patterns theory (FCPT), this study examined conversation and conformity orientation, received social support by caregivers from family members, and perceived quality of care (i.e., caregiving mastery). An online survey of 191 adults caring for or who had previously cared for family members with a variety of health conditions revealed that conversation orientation is positively related to received social support, which is positively associated with quality of care. Received social support mediated the relationship between family conversation orientation and quality of care, though indirect effects for conformity orientation were not observed.

Keywords:

• Caregiver Mastery
• Family Caregiving
• Family Communication Patterns Theory
• Quality Of Care
• Received Social Support

Acknowledgments

The authors acknowledge and thank the students of COM 498, sections 01 and 02, from spring 2018 for their assistance with data collection.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. Sampling method, caregiving role, and marital status were tested via oneway ANOVAs (for quality of care) or MANOVAs (for the received social support and FCPT variables). The remaining variables were tested via bivariate correlation tests. For details about any of the preliminary analyses, please contact the first author.

2. Whether the interaction between conversation and conformity orientation had a significant influence on any of the dependent variables was tested in a series of linear regression models. The two FCPT variables were mean-centred prior to computing the interaction term. Appropriate covariates were entered into the regression models where necessary. The interaction term was not significant in any of the regression models. For details about these supplementary analyses, please contact the first author.

Additional information

Funding

This research was supported by a grant awarded to the second author by the Chapman University Office of Graduate Studies in spring 2018.