Relationships between Stress, Ways of Coping and Burnout of Family Caregivers of Cancer Patients

Abstract

Purpose: The study was to examine the relationships between stress, ways of coping and burnout among family caregivers of cancer patients. Methods: Data were collected by self-reported questionnaires from 207 family caregivers of cancer patients at one university hospital and one general hospital in Busan, Korea. The instruments included a Stress Scale, a Ways of Coping Scale and a Burnout Scale. The collected data were analyzed using frequency, percentage, t-test, ANOVA, Scheffe’s test, and Pearson’s correlation coefficients with the SPSS WIN 19.0 program. Results: Stress was found to have significant relationships with age, relation to the patient, education, monthly income, degree of care-giving, financial burden and activities of daily living of patient. In active coping, there were significant differences according to education and religion. Passive coping was significantly related to gender. In burnout, there were significant differences according to age, relation to the patient, education, occupational status, monthly income, degree of care-giving, financial burden and activities of daily living of patient. Stress and burnout showed a positive correlation, while there was a negative correlation between burnout and active coping. Conclusion: These results suggest that promoting active coping would better support family caregivers of cancer patients in managing burnout effectively.