Coping in family supporters of elderly people with dementia

Research into supporters of elderly people with dementia has a brief but significant history. Initially, research sought to establish the nature and extent of the distress that supporters endured in the fulfilment of their caring role. More recently, researchers have turned their attention towards the identification of coping techniques used by supporters in the community. The Dundee Study of Supporters and Dementia is concerned with factors associated with the maintenance and care of the demented elderly in the community, and with the impact of dementia on family supporters. A total of 228 family supporters of community-resident elderly (50 per cent of elders with dementia, 50 per cent without) were interviewed. Part of the interview focused on self-reported coping, and identified coping strategies using open-ended questions and a revised, 31-items Ways of Coping checklist. Findings indicated that the majority of supporters of community-resident elderly relatives reported coping well. Supporters predominantly used emotion-focused coping strategies as their main way of coping. However, those supporters who reported using a problem-focused strategy were found to score better on measures of coping than those supporters using an emotion-focused strategy. The supporters' main coping strategy was not associated with characteristics of the elder-supporter dyad. Factors derived from the Ways of Coping checklist produced a pattern of associations with characteristics of the elder-supporter dyad, but the same factors were largely not associated with other measures of coping. The implications of the findings are discussed with regard to coping research, and for interventions to improve the well-being of supporters of an elderly relative with dementia in the community.