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ABSTRACT
Objectives: Gratitude is widely perceived as a key factor to psychological well-being by different cultures and religions. The relationship between gratitude and coping in the context of familial dementia caregiving has yet to be investigated.
Design: This study is the first to examine the associations among gratitude, coping strategies, psychological resources and psychological distress using a structural equation modelling approach.
Results: Findings with 101 Chinese familial caregivers of persons with dementia (mean age = 57.6, range = 40–76; 82% women) showed that gratitude was related to the greater use of emotion-focused coping (positive reframing, acceptance, humour, emotional social support seeking, religious coping) and psychological resources (caregiving competence and social support). Psychological resources and emotion-focused coping in turn explained the association between gratitude and lower levels of psychological distress (caregiving burden and depressive symptoms).
Conclusion: The present results indicate the beneficial role of gratitude on coping with caregiving distress and provide empirical foundation for incorporating gratitude in future psychological interventions for caregivers.
Acknowledgements
This study was supported by the HKU COA JMK Dementia Care Scholarship awarded to the first author. The authors thank Prof. Terry Lum and Dr Karen Cheung for their suggestions on the design of the study, Mr Bobby Leung and Ms Iris Cheng for their assistance on data collection and data preparation and the nine participating non-governmental organizations (Baptist Oi Kwan Social Service, Hong Kong Alzheimer's Disease Association, Sik Sik Yuen, St. James Settlement, The Hong Kong Society for Rehabilitation, The Salvation Army-Hong Kong and Macau Command, The Evangel Lutheran Church of Hong Kong, Yan Chai Hospital Social Service Department and Yan Oi Tong) for their efforts in recruiting participants.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.
Notes
1. The SEM model was conducted on 98 participants. Two missing responses were found on a positive reframing item, with another missing response found on an emotional social support seeking item.
2. The pattern of significant effects remained the same after controlling for activities of daily living and problem behaviours of PWDs, caregiver gender, caregiver age, caregiver's religious affiliation, and number of years of dementia diagnosis. Significant effects were found for the association between gratitude and emotion-focused coping, between gratitude and psychological resources, and between psychological resources and psychological distress.