Psychological Resilience and Quality of Life Among Caregivers of Patients With Schizophrenia

Inclusion criteria

Case Group (Caregivers of Patients with Schizophrenia):

• Primary informal caregiver defined as an immediate family member (parent, spouse, sibling, or adult child) providing unpaid physical, emotional, or financial assistance.
• Continuous co-residence with the patient for a minimum duration of 6 months prior to enrollment.
• Caring for an individual with an established clinical diagnosis of schizophrenia confirmed by a psychiatrist according to DSM-5 or ICD-11 criteria.
• Caregiver age between 18 and 65 years.
• Both male and female caregivers.
• Cognitive and functional ability to comprehend study instruments and complete clinical rating scales during face-to-face interviews.
• Willingness to provide voluntary written informed consent.

Control Group:

• Family caregivers of healthy individuals with no current or past history of schizophrenia or other major psychiatric disorders.
• Matched to the case group by age, sex, marital status, educational level, and socioeconomic status.
• Willingness to provide voluntary written informed consent.

Exclusion criteria

• Refusal or inability of the caregiver to provide written informed consent.
• Documented history of major primary psychiatric disorders (e.g., bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, organic psychosis) or severe neurological illness diagnosed prior to assuming the caregiving role.
• Concurrently providing care for another family member suffering from a severe chronic physical disability, terminal illness, or neurodegenerative disease.
• Presence of active substance use disorders, severe cognitive impairment, or intellectual disability that impedes reliable questionnaire completion.