Impact of Sleep Deprivation and Coping Abilities on The Psychological Adjustment of Caregivers of The Elderly

Abstract

Objective: To examine the impact of sleep deprivation and coping abilities on the psychological adjustment of caregivers of elderly.

Study Design: Cross sectional analytical study.

Place and Duration: Department of Psychology, University of Gujrat, Gujrat Pakistan, from Jan to Jul 2018.

Methodology: The caregivers of the elderly were recruited in the study with the caregiving experience of 6 months to 2 years. The respondents with any physical or psychological problems were excluded from the study. The sleep deprivation, coping and psychological adjustment were measured using the Pittsburgh sleep quality index, coping styles scale, scale of adjustment for adults respectively.

Results: The data of 200 caregivers of the elderly was analyzed using structure equation modeling. The model fit was established with the p-value of <0.001. It was found that caregivers' sleep deprivation and coping abilities affected their psychological adjustments. The overall model confirmed that sleep deprivation and coping ability affected the psychological adjustment. The individual relationship between sleep deprivation predicted psychological adjustment with the value of regression estimate as 5.808 (p-value <0.001). Furthermore, the role of coping abilities on psychological adjustment had a regression value of 0.151 (p-value 0.7013).

Conclusion: The sleep deprivation affected the psychological adjustment of caregivers of the elderly, whereas the coping abilities did not affect the psychological adjustment.