Impact of Hope and Coping on Psychosocial Adjustment after Spinal Cord Injury in the Selected Rehabilitation Centre of Bangladesh

Abstract

Background: Individuals with physical impairment who are hopeful, live more positive lives than those who experience hopelessness. One the other side different people use different coping strategies to handle their stressful situation. Hope and coping strategies are two crucial elements that have been identified as important contributors to psychosocial adjustment in the context of Spinal Cord Injury (SCI) which is widely acknowledged globally. This study helps to provide some light of information about these factors in a different context. Aim: To find out the impact of hope and coping on psychosocial adjustment process after SCI in the rehabilitation centre of Bangladesh. Methods: The study followed a cross sectional quantitative design by conducting face to face survey among 109 participants both male and female who were receiving rehabilitation service from CRP inpatient unit, Savar through purposive sampling. Standardized questionnaire Adult Hope Scale, Brief Cope and Psychosocial Adjustment to Illness Scale - Self Report used to know the level of hope, coping, and psychosocial adjustment with their disability and the correlation between these factors. Descriptive analysis and analytical cross-sectional analysis used by SPSS 20 to analyze the data and Spearman’s Rank correlation and Kruskal Wallis tests was used to employed in the study. Results: 96 Male and 13 Female with mean age 33.76 ±13.24 responded the survey. In these 37.6% were tetraplegia and 62.4% were paraplegia. The study found a low level of hope among 68.8% of participants, with 2.8% were high level. And the total hope level represented less hope (Mean ±SD = 33.21±12.958) in these participants. Furthermore, the participants had moderately low levels of problem focused coping and emotion focused coping (Mean ±SD = 52.6950 ±15.28252 and 52.7332 ±9.09739). On the other hand, relatively less avoidant coping (43.7500 ±10.70774). The psychosocial adjustment of the SCI patient had moderately low level of adjustment (1.5361 ±.65805). And there was a negative correlation between hope (r= -.447**), problem focused coping (r= -.397**), emotion focused coping (r= -.244*) with psychosocial adjustment. Also, there were positive correlation between problem focused coping (r= .647**), emotion focused coping (r=.384**) with Hope. Interestingly, there was no statistically significant correlation between avoidant coping with hope and psychosocial adjustment. Conclusion: In conclusion, these findings underscore the need for interventions aimed at fostering hope, promoting effective coping mechanisms, and addressing psychosocial adjustment to enhance the overall well-being of SCI patients in Bangladesh. Occupational Therapists (OTs) can strategies the findings into individualized intervention. Keywords: Spinal Cord Injury, Hope, Coping, Psychosocial Adjustment, Rehabilitation Centre.