The Caregiver Burden and Family Coping in Families with Schizophrenia: Cross-sectional Study

Abstract

Background: Schizophrenia causes social conflict because it brings a burden of care for family caregivers. Thus, effective handling and management strategies are needed. This study aims to identify the relationship between family caregiver burden and family coping in schizophrenia patients. Materials and Methods: This cross sectional study design was conducted on 73 family caregivers of schizophrenia patients in Lamongan Regency, Indonesia, in 2023 through a purposive sampling technique. The Burden Scale for Family Caregivers (BSFC-s) was used to measure the burden of care, and the Brief-COPE scale was used to measure family coping felt by families of schizophrenia patients. Data were analyzed using univariate and bivariate analysis, including the Spearman rank test, using Microsoft Excel and IBM Corp SPSS Statistics 24 applications. Results: There was a significant negative relationship between the emotional support dimension in the family coping variable and the burden of family caregivers (r = −0.71, p = <0.001), and a significant negative relationship between the acceptance dimension in the family coping variable and the burden of family caregivers (r = −0.80, p = <0.001). Overall, the Spearman rank test results showed a significant negative relationship between family coping and family caregiver burden (r = −0.82, p = <0.001). Conclusions: There is a significant negative correlation between caregiving burden and family coping in schizophrenia patients. This requires increased reciprocal cooperation to reduce the burden on families in providing care for schizophrenia patients.