The Self-Forgiveness Process of Caregivers After the Death of Care-Receivers Diagnosed With Alzheimer's Disease

Abstract

This study explores the relationship of self-forgiveness and adaptive coping, religious/spiritual practices, social support, decreased grief, and mental well-being. 133 caregivers were surveyed. Bivariate analysis and stepwise regression models revealed that decreased grief, adaptive coping, and social support were significant in explaining the variation in self-forgiveness. This is one of the first studies to address self-forgiveness as part of the grieving process of Alzheimer's caregivers. Future directions are explored supporting inclusion of self-forgiveness as an aspect of grief and adaptive coping; which is further enhanced by the level of social support experienced by the caregiver.

The Investigation of University Students' Forgiveness Levels in Terms of Self-compassion, Rumination and Personality Traits

“…Under the studies conducted in literature, it is observed that self-forgiveness is related positively with self-respect [13], intellectual well-being [28], life satisfaction, positive feelings, cognitive flexibility [64], physical health [71] and empathy [23] but it is related negatively with anxiety and depression [64,65], anger, suicidality [24], and neurotic symptoms [20]. It is expected but also significant result that the concept of self-compassion is predicting the concept of self-forgiveness which has a positive relationship with many positive variables and a negative relationship with many negative variables in literature.…”

Caregivers' Coping and Self-Forgiveness After the Death of a Care-Receiver

“…The variables, cited by Jacinto (2007), included in this study are adaptive coping and non-adaptive coping. The variables will be defined here for the purpose of this study.…”

“…This difficulty in communication has the potential to significantly increase the stress of caregiving and can tax the caregiver's coping resources. The care-receiver most likely will not be able to say good-bye to the caregiver, and this lack of closure can contribute to the caregiver experiencing an increase in feelings of guilt and regret (Jacinto, 2007). An important part of the process of resolving unfinished business with the care-receiver is self-forgiveness.…”

“…An important part of the process of resolving unfinished business with the care-receiver is self-forgiveness. This article is part of a larger study that considered a number of variables related to caregiver self-forgiveness (Jacinto, 2010). The purpose of this article is to explore the effects of adaptive coping and non-adaptive coping behaviors on…”

“…Many caregivers are challenged with increasing responsibility that comes about due to the dual roles of family member and caregiver (Jacinto, 2007). The increased responsibility for the caregiver in relationship to the care-receiver places stress on the caregiver's coping resources.…”