Communal Coping in the Context of Filial Caregiving

In the U.S., there has been a steady increase in the number of adult children (i.e., filial caregivers) providing care to their aging parents. Filial caregiving impacts not only the caregiver and recipient, but also caregivers’ spouses. This necessitates an understanding of how filial caregivers and their spouses cope with the stressors of caregiving. Communal coping, which involves both couple members viewing a stressor as a shared problem and responsibility that is managed together (Lyons et al.,1998), provides a promising framework for understanding how couples cope with chronic stressors. However, in the context of filial caregiving, wherein the responsibility of providing care is an extra-dyadic stressor, and the non-caregiving spouse may feel less obligated to be involved in providing care, it is unclear whether communal coping would be beneficial for caregivers’ and spouses’ personal and relational well-being, and whether there are motivations driving communal coping. My dissertation was designed to examine the antecedents and consequences of communal coping in this unique context. Forty-two filial caregivers and their spouses (N = 83 individuals) completed an online survey assessing relational motives (i.e., compassionate goals and communal strength), communal coping, and personal and relational well-being. Results indicated that communal coping was beneficial for caregivers’ relational well-being and that compassionate goals may be an important predictor of communal coping for spouses. These findings broaden our understanding of the consequences of communal coping for caregivers’ and spouses’ personal and relational well-being and offer insight into how relational motives contribute to communal coping in the context of filial caregiving. Further research examining the relationship between relational motives, communal coping, and subsequent effects on well-being in the filial caregiving context is suggested.