Coping, Subjective Burden and Mental Health in Family Carers of Dependent Children and Adolescents: A Systematic Review With Meta-Analysis.
Juan Carlos Muñoz-Cruz, Catalina López-Martínez, Vasiliki Orgeta and 1 others
PMID 41983520WHAT IT FOUND
Dysfunctional coping (avoidance, self-blame, venting, behavioural disengagement) was consistently linked to higher anxiety, depression and caregiver burden in family carers of dependent children.
Emotion-focused coping was linked to fewer depressive symptoms, but the evidence was less stable.
Key findings
01Higher dysfunctional coping scores were associated with higher depressive symptoms (r = 0.441; 95% CI 0.383 to 0.496; N = 2090 from 20 samples).
02Higher dysfunctional coping scores were associated with higher anxiety symptoms (r = 0.467; 95% CI 0.376 to 0.549; N = 765 from nine samples).
03Higher dysfunctional coping scores were associated with greater subjective caregiver burden (r = 0.246; 95% CI 0.178 to 0.312; N = 769 from six samples).
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for RNs
Read the rest of this summary
You get three full summaries a month, free, and we do not ask for a card. Search, the TL;DRs and your library stay unlimited either way.
What it does not show
All included studies were cross-sectional, so the review cannot show whether coping strategies cause changes in anxiety, depression or burden. Most studies used non-probabilistic sampling, so the carers studied may not represent all family carers. Several meta-analyses were based on few studies or samples, and subgroup analyses were limited by small numbers. Many studies did not control for objective caregiving burden or other confounders, so the associations may reflect care demands rather than coping. Some significant findings were unstable when individual studies were removed or showed possible publication bias.
Declared interests
The authors declared no conflicts of interest. Open-access funding came from Universidad de Jaén/CBUA.
The easy way to misread this
Do not read these results as proof that changing coping causes change in mental health. All included studies were cross-sectional, and many did not control for objective caregiving burden, so the associations may reflect distress leading to dysfunctional coping or confounding by care demands.