Hope, active coping and well-being in stroke-survivors and caregivers: An actor–partner model analysis

Purpose: Stroke is a medical condition cause of suffering for both patients and their caregivers within the family. This paper aimed to assess the influence of the psychological construct of hope and active coping on hedonic wellbeing in patient with stroke and caregiver dyads by determining the dyadic patterns. Methods: A baseline study including 200 stroke-survivor (Age 73.63; SD=7.22) and caregiver (62.49; SD=14.44) dyads with actor–partner interdependence model (APIM) estimated by structural equation modelling with maximum likelihood estimation. Herth Hope Index (HHI), Proactive Coping Inventory (PCI) and Personal Wellbeing Index (PWI) were used to measure hope, proactive coping and wellbeing, respectively. Results: The APIM analysis revealed that both stroke patients and caregivers demonstrated double actor-only pattern. As such, stroke-survivors’ hope and active coping excreted an actor effect on their own wellbeing with beta = 0.48 (p < 0.01) and 0.16 (p < 0.01), respectively. Similarly, the caregiver also reported an actor effect between hope and wellbeing (beta = 0.84, p < 0.01) as well as active coping with wellbeing (beta = 0.37, p < 0.01). The overall SEM model also fulfilled the criteria for good model fit (χ2 (5.87), p = > 0.05, CFI = 0.98, TLI = 0.96 and RMSEA = 0.07). Conclusions: The results suggest that both stroke patients and caregivers’ hedonic wellbeing are holding actor-oriented pattern with the hope and active coping. The implications for clinical practitioners, research and theoretical development are discussed.