P. Stebbins et Ki. Pakenham, Irrational schematic beliefs and psychological distress in caregivers of people with traumatic brain injury, REHAB PSYCH, 46(2), 2001, pp. 178-194
Objective: To investigate the relation between irrational schematic beliefs
and psychological distress in caregivers of persons with traumatic brain i
njury (TBI). Design: Cross-sectional mail survey. Participants: One hundred
sixteen caregivers of persons with TBI living in the Australian states of
Victoria and Queensland who were members of community support groups and br
ain injury associations. Measures: The Irrational Beliefs Inventory, Brief
Symptom Inventory, income satisfaction, degree of personality and behavior
change in the TBI individual, and injury severity. Results: Hierarchical re
gression analyses showed that after controlling for the effects of characte
ristics of the caregiving situation and the individual with TBI, greater ad
herence to irrational beliefs was related to higher levels of global psycho
logical distress. Specifically, irrational beliefs related to Worrying were
associated with all areas of psychological distress. Conclusion: Results s
upport the cognitive theory proposal that irrational beliefs play an import
ant role in the adaptation to TBI caregiving. Findings suggest the inclusio
n of cognitive therapy strategies in interventions for caregivers.