Resilience and Perceived Social support among Family Caregivers of Patients with Schizophrenia

Mohamed Abdelaal, Heba; Hassnin Eita, Lamiaa; Mohamed Khedr, Mahmoud

doi:10.21608/ejhc.2021.179109

Resilience and Perceived Social support among Family Caregivers of Patients with Schizophrenia

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

¹ Lecturer of Psychiatric Nursing and Mental Health, Faculty of Nursing, Alexandria University, Egypt

² Ass. Prof. of Psychiatric and Mental Health Nursing Department, Faculty of Nursing, Menoufia University, Egypt

10.21608/ejhc.2021.179109

Abstract

Background: Psychological distress and burden among family caregivers of patients with
schizophrenia can be mediated by resilience and perceived social support from family members,
friends, and other significant caregivers. These are integral to bring positive changes in recovery
and adaptation of family caregivers. Those reduce stress characteristics, also improve quality of life
and quality of care provided for patients by family caregivers. Aim: This study aimed to determine
the relationship between level of resilience and type of perceived social support among family
caregivers of patients with schizophrenia. Design: A descriptive correlational design was used in
this study. Setting: The study was conducted at Elmaamoura Hospital for Psychiatric Medicine in
Alexandria, Egypt. Subjects: Subjects of this study consisted of 200 family caregivers of patients
with schizophrenia. Tools: Three tools were used to collect necessary data namely a socio-
demographic structured interview schedule, Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale (CD-RISC-10) and
the Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support (MSPSS). Results: Among the studied
caregivers 76% had low level of resilience and most of the caregivers 82.5% had moderate
perceived social support. A statistically significant positive relationship was found between
resilience and total score of perceived social support & its three subscales (family social support,
important people social support and friends social support). On further analysis using stepwise
multiple regression, the study revealed that family social support emerged as the first predictor of
resilience. Conclusion: It can be concluded that most of the studied patients had low level of
resilience and moderate perceived social support. Moreover, perceived social support is related to
and can predict more resilience among family caregivers.

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