Article

Objective: To investigate the relationship between resilience and affective
state, caregiver burden and caregiving strategies among family members of people
with traumatic brain or spinal cord injury. Design: An observational prospective
cross-sectional study. Setting: Inpatient and community rehabilitation services.
Subjects: Convenience sample of 61 family respondents aged 18 years or older at
the time of the study and supporting a relative with severe traumatic brain
injury (n = 30) or spinal cord injury (n= 31). Main measures: Resilience Scale,
Positive And Negative Affect Schedule, Caregiver Burden Scale, Functional
Independence Measure, Carer's Assessment of Managing Index. Results:
Correlational analyses found a significant positive association between family
resilience scores and positive affect (r s = 0.67), and a significant negative
association with negative affect (r s = -0.47) and caregiver burden scores (r s =
-0.47). No association was found between family resilience scores and their
relative's severity of functional impairment. Family members with high resilience
scores rated four carer strategies as significantly more helpful than family
members with low resilience scores. Between-groups analyses (families supporting
relative with traumatic brain injury vs. spinal cord injury) found no significant
differences in ratings of the perceived helpfulness of carer strategies once
Bonferroni correction for multiple tests was applied.
Conclusions: Self-rated
resilience correlated positively with positive affect, and negatively with
negative affect and caregiver burden. These results are consistent with
resilience theories which propose that people with high resilience are more
likely to display positive adaptation when faced by significant adversity.

Langue : ANGLAIS