Differences in coping effectiveness and well-being among aging mothers andfathers of adults with mental retardation

In this longitudinal study, we examined stress and coping processes among 1 33 married mothers (age 59 to 83) and fathers (age 56 to 84) of adults with mental retardation (age 19 to 53). There were no differences between mothe rs and fathers with respect to their frequency of use of emotion-focused co ping, but mothers used significantly more problem-focused coping strategies than did their husbands. For mothers, greater use of problem-focused copin g strategies and lower use of emotion-focused coping buffered the impacts o f caregiving stress on their psychological well-being. However, for fathers , no buffering effects of coping were detected. The implications of gender differences in coping effects were examined in the context of the impact of lifelong caregiving.