To study the relationship between coping styles and expressed emotion of caregivers of patients with schizophrenia

Pages: 507-510
Dinesh Naik (Prinicipal, N.V.P. Mandals Arts, Commerarce & Science College, Lasalgaon, Nasik, Maharashtra)

Schizophrenia is a severe brain disorder in which people interpret reality abnormally. Schizophrenia may result in some combination of hallucinations, delusions, and extremely disordered thinking and behavior. Contrary to popular belief, schizophrenia isn’t a split personality or multiple personality. The word “schizophrenia” does mean “split mind,” but it refers to a disruption of the usual balance of emotions and thinking. Here it’s a huge problem of coping of care givers schizophrenia. Coping style is a person’s characteristic strategies used in response to life problems or trauma. These can include thoughts, emotions or behaviour. The term coping refers to the process by which a person attempts to manage stressful demands. Expressed emotion is a qualitative measure of the ‘amount’ of emotion displayed, typically in the family setting, usually by a family or caretakers. It is the interpersonal emotional environment of the family. Expressed emotion has been described as ”a measure of the extent to which relatives express critical, hostile or over-involved attitudes about a patient when discussing the patient’s illness and family life with an interviewer” (Keonigsberg & Handley, 1986). The aim of the present study was to see relationship between coping styles and expressed emotion of caregivers of schizophrenia patients. The sample size of the study is 60 caregivers of schizophrenic patients. The tools used for assessing the variables are Socio Demographic Data Sheet (Self made), General Health Questionnaire, The Cope Scale and Attitude Questionnaire for measuring Expressed Emotion. suggests that a negative correlation between emotion-focused coping with hostility (Expressed Emotion).