Los cuidadores familiares de enfermos crónicos: Sentimiento de soledad, aislamineto social y estilos de afrontamiento.

STEFANI, D.; SEIDMANN, S.; PANO, C.; ACRICH, L.; BAIL PUPKO, V.

REVISTA LATINOAMERICANA DE PSICOLOGíA

Fundación Universitaria Konrad Lorenz

Lugar: Bogotá; Año: 2003 vol. 35 p. 55 - 65

0120-0534

The purpose of this paper is to assess the expected relationship between feeling of loneliness, social isolation and the ways of coping in two situations of family caregivers of chronically ill patients: mothers who take care of chronically ill children and daughters who take careo f chronically ill parents. To assess the feeling of loneliness and the social isolation of the caregiver we used the Emocional and Social Loneliness Inventory (ESLI) developed by Vicenzi & Grabosky (1989). To assess ways of coping we selected an abridged version of Ways of Coping Questionnaire by Folkman & Lazarus (1980) developed by Vitalino et al. (1985). Both were applied to the two groups of caregivers already mentioned: 72 mothers who took care of a chronically ill child, and 71 daughters who took care of a chronically ill parent. The results we obtained in the various multivariate analyses revealed in the participants interviewed that there are different adaptative responses of the caregivers when facing a chronic illness of a family member, depending on the caregiving situation. The caregiver daughters showed more feeling of social loneliness than the mothers did. The most frequently used way of coping by family caregivers with high scores in social loneliness and isolation in both situations were withdrawal of the problem through fantasy or the mental denial of reality.