Informal caregivers provide a substantial amount of emotional, financial, physical, and social support to their loved ones with Alzheimers disease. Alzheimers caregivers often report immense levels of burden, which are associated with the demands of their caregiving duties. Caregivers mediate this burden through various means of coping, including spiritual support. Individuals who successfully manage the negative stressors related to Alzheimers caregiving are often highly resilient. The purpose of this study was to re-evaluate the psychometric properties of the Spiritual Support Scale among a sample of Alzheimers caregivers. The Spiritual Support Scale was initially utilized to measure spiritual coping among a sample of graduate and undergraduate students, after the September 11th terrorist attacks. The current study examined the efficacy of the Spiritual Support Scale among a sample of 691 Alzheimers caregivers in south Louisiana. The study confirmed previously reported calculations of the scales reliability by calculating Cronbachs alpha and Guttmans split-half coefficient. The study also established the validity of the Spiritual Support Scale by comparing the measure to theoretically linked constructs, coping and resilience. Confirmatory factor analysis identified a single factor of the Spiritual Support Scale on which all items of the scale loaded. The study concluded the Spiritual Support Scale has sound psychometric properties.
Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:LSU/oai:etd.lsu.edu:etd-04062012-122029 |
Date | 25 April 2012 |
Creators | Bowman, Angela M. |
Contributors | Lim, Younghee, Barthelemy, Juan, Wilks, Scott |
Publisher | LSU |
Source Sets | Louisiana State University |
Language | English |
Detected Language | English |
Type | text |
Format | application/pdf |
Source | http://etd.lsu.edu/docs/available/etd-04062012-122029/ |
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