The Relationship Between Family Caregiver Coping Self-Efficacy and Burden in the Intensive Care Unit: The Mediating...

Family caregivers often face significant challenges in coping with the critical phases of their loved one's illness. These experiences can impose substantial burdens on their daily lives.

This study explores the mediating role of resourcefulness in the relationship between coping self-efficacy and family caregivers' burden.

A descriptive correlational research design is used to examine the relationship between the study variables and how demographic characteristics influence them.

The study included 370 family caregivers, with a response rate of 61.7%. Approximately 41.6% of family caregivers were aged 30-39 years, and more than half were male. Total family caregiver burden showed moderate negative correlations with total coping self-efficacy (r = -0.683, p < 0.001) and total resourcefulness (r = -0.799, p < 0.001). Despite a strong negative correlation between family caregiver burden and personal resourcefulness (r = -0.937, p < 0.001), a weak negative correlation with the social resourcefulness subscale (r = -0.263, p < 0.001) was observed. Moreover, the path analysis model highlights the substantial effects of both personal resourcefulness (-0.380, CR = -36.022, p < 0.001) and social resourcefulness (-0.150, CR = -12.258, p < 0.001) on reducing caregiver burden, indicating that resourcefulness is a negative predictor of caregiver burden.

Personal resourcefulness significantly mediates the adverse effect of caregiver burden on coping self-efficacy, underscoring the potential of nursing interventions to support caregivers and improve ICU outcomes.

Nursing interventions incorporate strategies such as family-centred care, targeted education, coping-skills training and collaborative goal setting to foster family reliance on personal resourcefulness, which plays a fundamental role in managing their burdens and surpasses the impact of social support alone.