Metacognitive Beliefs and Unhelpful Metacognitive Coping Strategies of Caregivers With Patients of Schizophrenia: A systematic Review

Abstract

Exploring caregivers' metacognitive beliefs and coping strategies provides valuable insights into their subjective experiences and the complex dynamics involved in caring for individuals with Schizophrenia. Families assume most of the responsibility of managing this condition and caregivers are involved in taking care of the patient most of the time. The purpose of this work was to provide a better insight into the metacognitive attitudes and coping mechanisms of carers of schizophrenia patients considering the difficult tasks and stressful responsibility these people have. For the current systematic review, the authors have searched relevant literatures from September 2022 to the present (2023) using, Google Scholar, PubMed, Springer Wiley’s Library, and SCOPUS. Among the total of 89 records identified, 16 full-text articles were included in the analysis and synthesized based on the study’s objective and limitations, published between 2013 and 2023. It can therefore be concluded that the study established the extent to which caregiving affected the metacognitive beliefs and coping strategies of individuals. The caregivers often deal with traumatic events, hopelessness in life and health, limited personal and social contacts, chronic vulnerability, family disruption, conflict, difficulties in communication, prejudice, and concerns of genetic predispositions. These challenges depict the complexity of caring careers and the impact on the caregivers’ psychological and emotional health. Thus, caregivers use different strategies to deal with the challenges arising from their responsibilities. Hence, the strategies to follow include embracing togetherness with the family, expressing respect to family members, praising the family members, being sensitive, learn new things, gaining self-confidence, enlarging on self-fulfillment, and valuing the family. These are some of the positive coping mechanisms that are beneficial to caregivers since they are able to support others while at the same time uplifting themselves given the difficulties that they encounter. All in all, this research emphasizes the diverse problems of family members of the patient with schizophrenia throughout the stormy process of caregiving. Thus, it provides more balanced view of the continuous cycle in which positive coping behaviors balance out the negative features of metacognition and help caregiver tend to their loved ones alongside preserving one’s well-being.