Abstract:
This descriptive study aimed to explore the stress process producing situations,
stress levels, coping abilities, social support, and quality of life in family caregivers of
persons with cancer receiving chemotherapy. The Lazarus’ stress, appraisal, and
coping theory was used to guide this study. Eighty-seven family caregivers of cancer
persons receiving chemotherapy at a tertiary hospital in Thailand were purposively
recruited. Instruments for data collection were: the demographic questionnaire, semistructured
interview questions, the Jalowiec Coping Scale (JCS), the Social Support
Questionnaire, and the Quality of Life Index. The qualitative data from interviews
were analyzed using content analysis, while the quantitative data were analyzed using
Pearson’s product moment correlation coefficient and Stepwise multiple regression.
The result showed that there were two kinds of stress situations : situations
related to relatives with cancer and situations related to caregivers themselves. The
stress level was moderate. The caregivers used all three coping subscales which were
confrontive, emotional, and palliative coping strategies. The proportion of coping
strategies caregivers used from highest to lowest was confrontive, palliative, and
emotive strategies. The caregivers received the most support from family, friends, and
health care professionals, in that order. The caregivers perceived a fairly good level of
quality of life. The coping and social support were account for 17.7 percent of
variance of perceived quality of life in family caregivers of person with cancer
receiving chemotherapy (p<.05) after adjusting the effect of caregiver age and duration
of care. The result can be used for enhancing quality of life in family caregivers when
facing situation producing stress, and can be used as a guide to evaluate caregivers’
outcomes.