Who Is Caring for the Caregiver? The Role of Cybercoping for Dementia Caregivers

The purpose of this study is to investigate the relationship between dementia caregivers' communication behaviors (information seeking and forwarding) and their outcomes (coping outcomes: e.g., dealing better with negative feelings or improved medical outcomes). A survey data set of dementia pa...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Health communication 2018-01, Vol.33 (1), p.5-13
Main Authors: Jeong, Jae-Seon, Kim, Young, Chon, Myoung-Gi
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adaptation, Psychological
Adult
Caregivers
Caregivers - psychology
Caregiving
Communication
Coping
Dementia
Dementia disorders
Female
Health behavior
Health education
Health information
Humans
Information seeking behavior
Internet
Male
Mathematical models
Patients
Public Health
Social Support
Surveys and Questionnaires
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:The purpose of this study is to investigate the relationship between dementia caregivers' communication behaviors (information seeking and forwarding) and their outcomes (coping outcomes: e.g., dealing better with negative feelings or improved medical outcomes). A survey data set of dementia patients' caregivers substantiates the effects of communication behaviors about dementia illness on coping outcomes, as well as the mediating role of emotion-focused and problem-focused coping processes. Using structural equation modeling (SEM), this study found positive effects of communication behaviors on outcomes through coping processes. Further, the results indicate that communication behaviors in cyberspace are crucial for caregivers to cope with dementia, both affectively (improvement of caregivers' emotional control) and physically (health improvement of patients). The implications for the improvement of public health through online health communication behaviors are discussed.
ISSN:1041-0236
1532-7027
DOI:10.1080/10410236.2016.1242030