Threat appraisal and coping in family members of the newly institutionalized elderly

The study problem was that sane individuals found institutionalizing a family member stressful, and family members required assistance in coping. The purposes of the study were to examine threat appraisal, degree of threat, and coping responses in a sample of family members of newly institutionalized elderly. The study was a descriptive correlational investigation which utilized Lazarus' theory of stress and coping as the theoretical framework.There were 21 questionnaires received from a convenience sample obtained through four nursing hens in the vicinity of a small city in Indiana. Five major categories of threat were identified. A high degree of threat was associated with each category. Both problem-focused coping and emotion-focused coping were utilized.Pearson product-mcinent correlation was used to determine that no significant relationship existed between coping responses utilized and degree of threat. ANOVA was used to reveal that there were no significant differences between coping responses utilized and demographic variables. Each scale was determined to be reliable by usage of Cronbach's alpha.