Religious coping and caregiver well-being in Mexican-American families

Background: There is growing evidence of the benefits of religious coping on health, though the effect on caregiver well-being remains elusive. Latinos readily employ religion as a mechanism for mitigating caregiving stress. However, there is little research on either the association of religiosity with caregiver health outcomes in this population or which styles of religious coping are most valuable in effecting change on health outcomes. Objective: We explored the association of religious and spiritual coping with multiple measures of well-being in Latinos caring for older, dependent relatives, either with or without dementia. Methods: We conducted in-home interviews with 66 predominantly Mexican-American Catholic family caregivers near the U.S.-Mexico border. The Duke Religiosity Index and Pargament's brief positive and negative spiritual coping scales were used to survey caregivers' intrinsic, organizational, and non-organizational religiosity with mental and physical health, depressive symptomatology, and perceived burden. Results: Using regression analysis, we controlled for sociocultural factors (e.g familism, acculturation), other forms of formal and informal support, and characteristics of the caregiving dyad and arrangement. Intrinsic and organizational religiosity were associated with lower perceived burden, while non-organizational religiosity was associated with poorer mental health. Negative religious coping (e.g., feelings that the caregiver burden is a punishment) predicted greater depression. Conclusion: Measures of well-being should be evaluated in relation to specific styles of religious and spiritual coping, given our range of findings. Further investigation is warranted regarding how knowledge of the positive and negative associations between religiosity and caregiving may assist healthcare providers in supporting Latino caregivers.