Coping strategies of mother carers of children living with chronic illness and disease in a rural South African community. Issue 5 (28th October 2016)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Sodi, Tholene; Kgopa, Bontle
• Is Part Of: Journal of psychology in Africa. Volume 26:Issue 5(2016)
• Page Start: 432
• Page End: 435
• Publication Date: 2016-10-28
• Subjects: mother carers -- chronic illnesses and diseases (CID) -- coping strategies; Psychology -- Africa, Sub-Saharan -- Periodicals; Psychology -- Latin America -- Periodicals; Black people -- Latin America -- Psychology -- Periodicals; Black people -- Africa, Sub-Saharan -- Psychology -- Periodicals; 155.8496
• DOI: 10.1080/14330237.2016.1219546
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1433-0237

Abstract

Abstract : The present study explored the coping strategies used by mother carers of children living with chronic illness and disease (CID) in a rural South African community. Ten mothers (age range = 30 to 56 years) were selected through snowball sampling to participate in the present study. They provided care to their children, a majority (50%) of whom had epilepsy, followed by asthma (20%) and other conditions. Data on the coping strategies used by mothers of children living with CID were collected using semi-structured interviews and analysed thematically. The results showed that mother carers tended to use three types of coping strategies, namely: appraisal-focused, problem-focused and emotion-focused strategies. Appraisal-focused was commonly used by mother carers whose children had epilepsy, whilst mother carers of children with asthma tended to use problem-focused coping strategies. All mother carers were found to use emotion-focused strategies to varying degrees in coping with the chronic diseases of their children.