Psychosocial Factors Associated With Coping of Inpatient Stroke Survivors and Family Caregivers: A Dyadic Analysis

Purpose/Objective: Stroke survivors' and their family caregivers' (stroke dyads) coping during the inpatient period can affect their short- and long-term health and well-being. This study aimed to investigate whether survivors' and caregivers' psychosocial factors (i.e., depression, anxiety, family functioning, and mutuality) were associated with their own and their counterparts' perceptions of family coping among inpatient stroke dyads. Research Method/Design: A cross-sectional design was adopted for this study which included 162 stroke dyads. Family coping, depression, anxiety, family functioning, and mutuality were measured using the Family Crisis-Oriented Personal Evaluation Scale, Patient Health Questionnaire-9, Generalized Anxiety Disorder-7, General Functioning subscale of Family Assessment Device, and Mutuality Scale, respectively. The actor-partner interdependence model estimated by path analysis was performed for the dyadic data. Results: The results revealed that survivors' own (depression: β = −0.337, p < .001) and their counterparts' (caregivers' anxiety: β = −0.220, p = .021) psychological symptoms were negatively associated with survivors' perceptions of family coping, whereas none of them were associated with caregivers' perceptions of family coping. Moreover, higher family functioning reported by the survivors (β = −0.375, p < .001) and family caregivers (β = −0.195, p = .029) were associated with better family coping perceived by both counterparts, respectively. Conclusions/Implications: This study highlights that stroke dyads' psychosocial factors play a vital role in their perceptions of family coping. Future studies can be conducted to develop coping-focused interventions from the dyadic or family-oriented approach regarding psychosocial states as potential targets for inpatient stroke dyads. Impact and ImplicationsThrough path analyses via the actor-partner interdependence model, this study found that survivors' depression (actor effect) and their counterparts'-the caregivers-anxiety (partner effect) were negatively associated with survivors' perceptions of family coping. Moreover, both survivors' and family caregivers' perceived family functioning were positively associated with their own perceptions of family coping (actor effects). The findings suggest that healthy family functioning can serve as a protective factor of family coping for stroke dyads on an intrapersonal level, while the survivors' depression and their caregivers' an