| Summary: | This exploratory study investigated the coping process of parents
who have adult sons or daughters with schizophrenia. The inquiry
was framed by individual stress and coping theory with attention
to family context. It investigated predictive relationships
among illness characteristics, demographics, individual and
family level resources, situational appraisals, and coping
strategies. The sample was comprised of 109 mothers and 32
fathers recruited through notices in newspapers and the
Schizophrenia newsletter, and through personal appeals to support
groups. Questionnaires, along with stamped, self-addressed,
return envelopes, were distributed personally or by mail. Either
the mother or the father of a person with schizophrenia was
considered eligible for participation. Measures used for
assessment were those with established psychometric properties.
A correlations matrix was examined to identify those variables
that were significantly associated with the dependent variables
of interest. The relationships among these relevant variables
were further analyzed using a standard multiple regression
procedure. The results showed support for the chosen theoretical
perspective. A parents' coping process was shown to be multideterminant
and interactive. Both illness characteristics and
demographics were predictive of primary appraisals (perceptions
of how the illness affected the parent's life ) and of coping
strategies; individual and family resources predicted primary
appraisals, secondary appraisals of controllability , and ways of
coping; predictive relationships also existed among primary
appraisals, secondary appraisals, and ways of coping. The importance of a direct influence of family members on the
parental coping process was indicated. === Land and Food Systems, Faculty of === Graduate
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