Benefit Finding and Growth Among Family Caregivers of Individuals With Mental Illness: A Scoping Review.
Rie Chiba, Yuki Miyamoto, Akiko Funakoshi and 6 others
PMID 39840639WHAT IT FOUND
Family caregivers of people with mental illness described growth alongside burden, including resilience, stronger family bonds, and new hope and coping.
Nurses can ask about these strengths as part of family assessment.
Key findings
01Family caregivers described positive changes after caregiving struggles, including becoming more compassionate, tolerant and resilient, stronger family bonds, changed life perspective, new hope, and better coping.
02Factors linked to growth included optimism, extraversion, openness, conscientiousness, religiousness, coping, positive reframing, meaning-making, resilience, balanced caregiving priorities, good relationships with patients, social support, higher education, and absence of patient substance abuse.
03Among 12 quantitative studies, 11 were cross-sectional and one was a randomized trial.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for RNs
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What it does not show
Only English-language peer-reviewed articles were included, and gray literature was not searched, so relevant studies may be missing. The included studies were heterogeneous in design, country, caregiver relationship, diagnosis, and growth measure, so they cannot be pooled or compared directly. Most quantitative studies were cross-sectional, so they cannot show that any factor caused growth. Most quantitative growth measures asked only about positive changes, which may overstate growth and miss negative experiences. No caregiver was involved in the review process, and none of the included studies reported patient and public involvement. Quality appraisal showed weaknesses, including all qualitative studies failing to address the researcher-participant relationship adequately.
Declared interests
The authors declared no potential conflicts of interest. The study was supported by Japan Society for the Promotion of Science KAKENHI grant no. 19K11216 and partially supported by grant nos. 23H03196, 22K10779, and 23K09929.
The easy way to misread this
Do not read this as proof that nurses can increase caregiver growth. Most included studies were cross-sectional or qualitative, and the review did not test an intervention. It shows patterns, not effects.