Integrative model of spirituality, social support, and altruism in carers resilience management: an empirical study of elderly cancer patients’ carers in Pakistan

ABSTRACT

The study was conducted to test the effect of spirituality, social support, and altruism on the resilience of carers of older cancer patients and to assess if the context of care moderates the effect of spirituality, social support, and altruism on the resilience of carers of older patients with cancer. Data were collected from 305 carers providing care for at least 3 months to older adults suffering from cancer. The data was collected from three public and one private hospitals using convenience sampling. The results of regression analyses showed that the model predicting resilience from spirituality and context of care was statistically significant (F(10, 294) = 6.38, p < .001, R² = 0.178). Likewise, the model predicting resilience from social support and the context of care was also statistically significant (F(10, 294) = 9.98, p < .001, R² = 0.253). The final model predicting resilience from altruism and context of care was statistically significant: F(10, 294) = 5.57, p < .001, R² = 0.159. The study underscores the need to advance a sense of purpose and meaning in caregiving activities, potentially through educational, welfare, and training programs that emphasis the positive impact of spirituality, social support, and altruism.

KEYWORDS:

• Altruism
• care burden
• care context
• informal caregiver
• older cancer patients
• resilience
• social support
• spirituality

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Funding

The author(s) reported there is no funding associated with the work featured in this article.