Relationship between Psychological Well-Being and Coping Strategies among Family Caregivers of Children with Down syndrome

Background: Rearing a child with Down Syndrome requires use of effective coping
strategies that may have a buffering effect on psychological well-being of family caregivers.
Aim: This study aimed to assess the relationship between psychological well-being and
coping strategies among family caregivers of children with Down syndrome. Design: A
descriptive research design was utilized in this study. Setting: This study was carried out in
the Genes Clinics of DS in the specialized clinics of the university pediatric hospital affiliated
to Ain Shams University Hospitals. Subjects: A sample of 120 family caregivers of children
with Down syndrome. The study tools were: 1) Interviewing Questionnaire, 2) Ryff’s
Psychological well-being scale (1989) and 3) Brief-COPE inventory (Carver, 1997). The
results: The study showed that family caregivers of children with DS combined between
emotion-focused and problem focused coping strategies in managing burden of child
caregiving and the most frequent used emotion focused coping strategies were acceptance and
religion while the most frequent used problem-focused coping strategy was use of
instrumental support. Concerning to psychological well-being, near two thirds of family
caregivers of children with DS had psychological well-being less than usual. Conclusions:
There was a negative significant correlation between level of psychological well-being and
emotion-focused coping strategies except for use of emotional support, acceptance, self
distraction, venting, humor and religion. Meanwhile, there was a positive significant
correlation between level of psychological well-being and problem-focused coping strategies
except for positive reframing. Recommendations: Future research to assess factors that may
influence role of caregiving and different challenges faced by family caregivers in rearing
different aged children with DS.