Wives' coping flexibility, time since husbands' injury and the perceived burden of wives of men with traumatic brain injury

Primary objective: To examine the moderating effect of wives' coping flexibility on the relation between time since husband's traumatic brain injury (TBI) and wives' perceived burden and the hypotheses that wives of long duration TBI men and wives with less coping flexibility will express more burden than wives of short duration burden men and wives with more coping flexibility. Research design: Forty-four wives whose husbands had sustained brain injury were interviewed 1 year or more after hospital discharge. Methods and procedures: The Relatives' Burden Questionnaire and Ways of Coping Questionnaire for each of four different problem vignettes were administered to the wives. Main findings and conclusions: No statistically significant effects were found for TBI duration or for wives' coping flexibility, although longer duration TBI wives reported a statistically significant higher level of burden than short duration TBI wives, only if the wives were characterized by low coping flexibility.