Stress Related Growth (SRG) among family caregivers of people with dementia in Japan

Abstract

This study focused on the stress related growth as one of positive appraisal among people who have caring experience to family members with dementia. The purpose of this study is to examine the stress related growth and to see the difference between family caregivers who are caring presently (present group: n=148) and who were caring in the past (past group: n=157). 324 family caregivers (255 women, 59 men, 10 blk; M=67.7±9.5yo) were asked to rate the questionnaires, such as Mental Health Inventory, Post Traumatic Stress Growth, Sense of Coherence, General Self-efficacy as well as Stress Related Growth (SRG). Mean score of SRG was higher than 3, the middle point. It reveals that family caregivers have not only feelings of burden but also positive feelings through caring experience; however, the result of t-test indicated that scores in 6 questions of SRG was significantly higher in the past group than the present group. While positive appraisal was observed, specific situation of the stress related growth was found to be different between two groups. Relationships of SRG with other measurements were also discussed.