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Perceived stress and resilience in family caregivers of patients with mental illness : relationship and correlates

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  19 July 2023

S. Kolsi*
Affiliation:
psychiatry c department, Hedi Chaker University Hospital Center, Sfax, Tunisia
N. Charfi
Affiliation:
psychiatry c department, Hedi Chaker University Hospital Center, Sfax, Tunisia
I. Gassara
Affiliation:
psychiatry c department, Hedi Chaker University Hospital Center, Sfax, Tunisia
R. Feki
Affiliation:
psychiatry c department, Hedi Chaker University Hospital Center, Sfax, Tunisia
S. Omri
Affiliation:
psychiatry c department, Hedi Chaker University Hospital Center, Sfax, Tunisia
N. Smaoui
Affiliation:
psychiatry c department, Hedi Chaker University Hospital Center, Sfax, Tunisia
L. Zouari
Affiliation:
psychiatry c department, Hedi Chaker University Hospital Center, Sfax, Tunisia
J. Benthabet
Affiliation:
psychiatry c department, Hedi Chaker University Hospital Center, Sfax, Tunisia
M. Maalej
Affiliation:
psychiatry c department, Hedi Chaker University Hospital Center, Sfax, Tunisia
M. Maalej
Affiliation:
psychiatry c department, Hedi Chaker University Hospital Center, Sfax, Tunisia
*
*Corresponding author.

Abstract

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Introduction

Family members play an important role in the life of many adults with mental disorders and are under considerable amounts of stress that may affect caregiver’s physical health, quality of life and resilience.

Objectives

The present study aimed to explore the relationship between the perceived stress and the resilience levels among caregivers of patients with mental illness and to identify their associated factors.

Methods

This was a cross-sectional, descriptive and analytical study conducted on caregivers of patients suffering from mental illness. It was conducted in the outpatient psychiatry department at the university hospital of Sfax (Tunisia), during september 2021.

We used the Connor–Davidson Resilience Scale to assess resilience and the Perceived Stress Scale (PSS-10) to assess the level of stress. High scores indicate high resilience and perceived

Results

The sample included 34 family caregivers of patients with mental illness. The mean age was 47.47 years (SD=12.4 years) and the sex ratio (M/F) was 1.42.

The mean resilience score of caregivers was 42.85 and the mean perceived stress score was 24.94 (SD=6.36).

The score of resilience correlated negatively with the score of perceived stress among family caregivers (r=-0.751 ; p=0.0001).

The Caregivers with low socioeconomic level were more likely to have a low resilience score (p=0.004) and to have high stress levels (p=0.04).

The level of perceived stress increased significantly in case of long duration of providing care (r=0.697 ; p= 0.001), the presence of stressful events (p=0.029) and the presence of agressive behaviors committed by patients (p= 0.001). However, the level of resilience decreased significantly in those same cases (p=0.001; p=0.002; p=0.0001 respectively)

Conclusions

Our findings suggest that high level of perceived stress among familiy caregivers impact negatively their capacity of resilience. So, interventions targeting stress related to stressful events and violence committed by patients in their family environment should be integrated to increase the caregivers’resilience.

Disclosure of Interest

None Declared

Type
Abstract
Creative Commons
Creative Common License - CCCreative Common License - BY
This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution licence (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Copyright
© The Author(s), 2023. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of the European Psychiatric Association
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