Religious-spiritual coping among family members of children requiring continuous and complex care: a mixed-methods study.
Bruna Josiane de Lima, Aline Cristiane Cavicchioli Okido, Wendy Sue Looman and 4 others
PMID 41328729WHAT IT FOUND
Family caregivers of children needing continuous and complex care reported more positive than negative religious-spiritual coping.
Younger caregivers had more negative coping; smaller households had more positive coping. Ask families about spiritual resources.
Key findings
01Family members had higher positive than negative religious-spiritual coping scores, with mean positive 3.28, mean negative 1.82, and a negative/positive ratio of 0.56.
02Younger family members reported more negative religious-spiritual coping, and family members living with fewer people reported more positive and total coping.
03Qualitative categories were faith in God, transformation in ways of thinking and interacting, and gratitude; care demands also distanced families from churches and clergy.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for RNs
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What it does not show
The sample was small and chosen by convenience, with 51 family members of 28 children, so it may not represent other families. The design was cross-sectional, so it can show associations between background factors and coping scores, not cause or effect. Only 15 of the 51 participants took part in the qualitative stage, so the themes may reflect a smaller subset. The study measured caregivers' religious-spiritual coping, not child health outcomes, caregiver burden, or whether nursing spiritual care helps. Recruitment through a previous study list and social networks may have included more connected or religious families. No sample size calculation was performed.
The easy way to misread this
Do not read these associations as proof that religious-spiritual coping reduces caregiver burden or improves child outcomes. The study was cross-sectional, used a convenience sample of 51 family members, and tested no intervention, so it cannot show cause or effect.