COPING - A REVIEW OF THE THEORETICAL FRAMEWORKS AND THE MEASURES USEDAMONG CAREGIVERS OF INDIVIDUALS WITH DEMENTIA

Gerontological social workers are often called upon to evaluate how fa mily members are coping with caring for older adults with dementia. Th is paper examines the ways in which coping has been conceptualized and measured among caregivers. This review is intended to assist social w orkers in understanding the issues relevant to the assessment of careg iver coping given current theoretical formulations, to identify some o f the gaps in the research conducted to date, and to help practitioner s in deciding how to choose a comprehensive measure of coping. This re view thereby compares and evaluates the conceptual and theoretical fra meworks of 16 studies and examines the psychometric properties of the eight measures they have used to assess the coping of caregivers of ol der adults with dementia. Conclusions and implications for social work research and practice are discussed.