Culture specific coping and quality of life among Ghanaians living with chronic illness

135 Pages·2015·2.8 MB·English

CULTURE –SPECIFIC COPING AND QUALITY OF LIFE AMONG GHANIANS
LIVING WITH CHRONIC ILLNESS: MENTAL ILLNESS AND CHRONIC KIDNEY
DISEASE

A THESIS SUBMITTED TO THE DEPARTMENT OF PSYCHOLOGY OF THE
UNIVERSITY OF GHANA

BY

HANNAH BELLE AFOLEY ANANG
(10196389)

IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE AWARD OF
MASTER OF PHILOSOPHY DEGREE IN CLINICAL PSYCHOLOGY

JULY, 2014
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CULTURE-SPECIFIC COPING AND QUALITY OF LIFE

DECLARATION

This is to certify that this thesis is the result of research carried out by Hannah Belle Afoley
Anang towards the award of Master of Philosophy degree in Clinical Psychology in the
Department of Psychology, University of Ghana.
…………………………
HANNAH BELLE AFOLEY ANANG
(STUDENT)
…………………………
DATE
…………………… ……………………………
PROF.C.C. MATE- KOLE DR AKUAMOAH BOATENG
(PRINCIPAL SUPERVISOR) (CO-SUPERVISOR)
…………………… …………………………
DATE DATE

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CULTURE-SPECIFIC COPING AND QUALITY OF LIFE

ABSTRACT

The study examined culture-specific coping and quality of life among Ghanaians living with
chronic illness such as mental illness and chronic kidney disease. A sample size of 150 was
used comprising of 50 mentally ill patients, 50 Chronic Kidney Disease patients and 50
healthy controls. Participants were sampled from the Accra Psychiatric Hospitals, Pantang
General Hospital and the Korle-Bu teaching Hospitals respectively. The concurrent mixed
method design was used which comprised a cross-sectional survey for the quantitative and a
semi-structured interview which comprised the qualitative. Patients were administered with
the Africultural Coping Systems Inventory), the General Health Questionnaire WHO Quality
of life Brief (WHOQOL) and a semi- structured interview also based on the Africultrual
Systems Inventory was also generated).Results showed that there was a significant positive
relationship between culture specific coping and quality of life generally.. Also there was a
significant negative relationship between the General Health Status of Patients and the
quality of life of patients. The results further revealed that, type of condition has a significant
effect on Cognitive Emotional Coping and Spiritual Centred Coping. However, no significant
differences were found in Collective Coping and Ritual Centered. Results showed that the
type of condition has a statistically significant effect on the overall health-related quality of
life. The type of condition also has statistically significant effects on the Physical
Psychological and Social domains but not on Environmental.

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CULTURE-SPECIFIC COPING AND QUALITY OF LIFE

DEDICATION

This thesis is dedicated to my Family

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CULTURE-SPECIFIC COPING AND QUALITY OF LIFE

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

Thanks and Glory, be to the almighty God for His mercies endure forever.
I take this opportunity to thank my first supervisor Professor C.C. Mate-Kole for his patience,
constructive criticisms and guidance in helping shape up my work. I am very grateful.
To my second supervisor Dr Akuamoah Boateng, words cannot express my heartfelt
gratitude for your support and checks in bring this work to an expected end. God richly bless
you.
To my family especially my mother, Mrs. Ruby Korkor Anang and my Daddy, Mr. Gabriel
Odai Anang for being my inspiration. To my siblings Aforkor, Afotey, Afokai, Afotsoo and
Naa Fofo, I say you’re the best! Never would I have made it without you.
To Ms.Beatrice Laardi Mmbilla and Mr. Nelson Charles for your support and
encouragement.
Finally but not least, I am grateful to all my friends Veronica Aboagye, Nuworza, Dr. Sally
Quartey and above all to Isaac Nyampong for your selfless support and care through hard
times.

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CULTURE-SPECIFIC COPING AND QUALITY OF LIFE

TABLE OF CONTENTS

DECLARATION ......................................................................................................................................... ii
ABSTRACT ............................................................................................................................................... iii
DEDICATION ........................................................................................................................................... iv
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT ............................................................................................................................. v
TABLE OF CONTENTS ....................................................................................................................... vi
LIST OF APPENDICES .............................................................................................................................. ix
LIST OF TALBLES ...................................................................................................................................... x
LIST OF FIGURES ..................................................................................................................................... xi
LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS ....................................................................................................................... xii
CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION .............................................................................................................. 1
Background ............................................................................................................................................. 1
Statement of the Problem ...................................................................................................................... 7
Justification .............................................................................................. Error! Bookmark not defined.
Aims ........................................................................................................................................................ 8
Objectives ............................................................................................................................................... 8
Relevance of the Study ........................................................................................................................... 9
CHAPTER TWO: LITERATURE REVIEW ...................................................................................... 11
Overview of literature review ............................................................................................................... 11
Theoretical Framework ......................................................................................................................... 11
The Transactional Model of Stress and Coping .................................................................................... 11
African Philosophical Framework ........................................................................................................ 12
Afrincentric Worldview ........................................................................................................................ 13
Quality of Life Theory .......................................................................................................................... 13
Related Studies ..................................................................................................................................... 14
Culture-Specific Coping ......................................................................................................................... 26
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CULTURE-SPECIFIC COPING AND QUALITY OF LIFE

Spirituality, Social Support and Coping ............................................................................................... 28
Chronic Illness and Quality of Life ......................................................................................................... 32
Gender Differences and Choice of Coping ............................................................................................ 39
Summary and Analysis of Literature ..................................................................................................... 42
Statement of Hypotheses ..................................................................................................................... 47
Proposed Conceptual Framework ........................................................................................................ 48
Operational Definition .......................................................................................................................... 49
CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY ................................................................................................................ 50
Introduction .......................................................................................................................................... 50
Population ............................................................................................................................................. 50
Sample size determination ................................................................................................................... 51
Sampling technique .............................................................................................................................. 51
Participants ........................................................................................................................................... 51
Design .................................................................................................................................................... 54
Procedure .............................................................................................................................................. 54
Data Analysis ......................................................................................................................................... 55
Measures/ Instruments ........................................................................................................................ 55
CHAPTER FOUR: RESULTS ..................................................................................................................... 61
Introduction .......................................................................................................................................... 61
Hypotheses Testing ............................................................................................................................... 62
Hypothesis Two ..................................................................................................................................... 64
Hypothesis Three .................................................................................................................................. 65
Hypothesis Four .................................................................................................................................... 67
Hypothesis Five ..................................................................................................................................... 69
Hypothesis Six ....................................................................................................................................... 70
Hypothesis Seven .................................................................................................................................. 71
Summary of Findings............................................................................................................................. 81
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CULTURE-SPECIFIC COPING AND QUALITY OF LIFE

Additional findings ................................................................................................................................ 82
DISCUSSION ........................................................................................................................................... 83
Observed Conceptual Framework ........................................................................................................ 90
Recommendation/ Implication for further clinical practice ................................................................. 91
Limitations ............................................................................................................................................ 91
Direction for future research ................................................................................................................ 93
Conclusion ............................................................................................................................................. 93
REFERENCES .......................................................................................................................................... 95
APPENDICES ........................................................................................................................................ 111

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CULTURE-SPECIFIC COPING AND QUALITY OF LIFE

LIST OF APPENDICES

Appendix I Ethical Clearance by Noguchi…………………………………………....101

Appendix II Ethical Clearance by Hospital………………………………………….102
Appendix III Summary of Frequencies of Demographic Variables…………………..103
Appendix IV Semi structured Interview………………………………………………104
Appendix V AFCI……………………………………………………………………105
Appendix VI WHOQOL BREF………………………………………………………107
Appendix VII: General Health Questionnaire……………………………………….....111

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CULTURE-SPECIFIC COPING AND QUALITY OF LIFE

LIST OF TALBLES

Table 1: Summary of Demographic Characteristics of the Respondents in the
Study……………………………………………………………………………….55

Table 2: Summary of Means, Standard Deviations and Internal Consistencies of the
Variables……………………………………………………………………..59
Table 3: Summary of Correlation Matrices of the Relationships among the Variables……..61
Table 4: One-way ANOVA and Post-hoc analysis of Afrocultural Coping among Persons
with Psychiatric, Physical Cases and Healthy Controls...................................63
Table 5: Multiple Comparisons of the Three Groups of Participants on Culture Specific
Coping using Bonferroni Test..................................................................................64
Table 6: One-way ANOVA and Post-hoc analysis of Quality of Life among Persons with
Psychiatric, Physical Cases and Healthy Controls…………………………..65
Table 7: Multiple Comparisons of the Three Groups of Participants on Overall Quality of
Life using Bonferroni Test..............................................................................66
Table 8: Multiple Regression Analysis of the Predictive Abilities of the Africultural Coping
Subscales in Quality of Life…………………………………………………67
Table 9: Summary of Independent t-test of Sex Differences in Quality of Life among
Respondents…………………………………………………………………68
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