Parents' Experiences Of Caring For Sons And Daughters With Schizophrenia: A Qualitative Analysis Of Coping

Parents' experiences of. Key words. Introduction / Previous studies. The aim. Method. Sample. Method. Clinical symptoms and coping strategies. Resources available to carers. Social support. Self-help groups. Mental health services. Discussion. References.

Research findings indicate that up to 60% of individuals with schizophrenia continue to live with their relatives, mostly with parents (Kuipers, 1993); Clinical manifestations of the ‘condition’ are commonly divided into positive and negative symptoms (Lemma, 1996); Interactional Theory of Stress and Coping (Lazarus & Folkman, 1984): the key aspects of adjustment to a stressful event are the nature of the stressor, the strategies adopted by the individual to cope with the stressor and the resources available to facilitate coping.

To investigate the experiences of a group of parents in detail and, specifically, to identify aspects of caring for a son or daughter with schizophrenia that had been particularly difficult to cope with, coping strategies that had been used by parents to deal with the stresses of their caring roles and resources that had been helpful in facilitating coping.