Sense of coherence and stress in caregivers

Sense of Coherence is a perception of the world as comprehensible, manageable and meaningful. It develops during childhood and youth and is thought to be fully developed by the age of 30 after which it remains stable unless radical changes in living or social surroundings take place. Sense of Coherence is believed to be important to people's mental health and has been found to be low in neurotic patients and even lower in depressed patients. A U.S. study of 60 women family members of adults with severe mental illness looked into the links between caregiving, stress and Sense of Coherence. The study found that higher levels of stress decreased people's Sense of Coherence and quality of life. But, a greater Sense of Coherence enhanced people's quality of life and helped to ameliorate some of the effects of stress.

Suresky, M. Jane, Zauszniewski, Jaclene A. and Bekhet, Abir K. - Sense of coherence and quality of life in women family members of the seriously mentally ill Issues in Mental Health Nursing March 2008, 29(3), 265-278