Caretaking families of schizophrenic individuals experience various
psychological conditions involving the attention of mind, emotion, behaviour and
social. These are experiences that each family undergoes both objectively and
subjectively. The current study aims to comprehend the experiences of caretaking families of schizophrenic individuals. Descriptive Phenomenology Analysis
(DPA) is chosen to analyse those experiences. Theme findings are roles and responsibility, emotional reaction, social activities, communication pattern, religiosity,
and appraisal or expectation. Some research results show that the family’s experience while caring for the schizophrenic individual is related to family burden.
This burden is mainly a psychological family burden, such as emotional reaction
in feeling angry and upset. On the other side, caretaking families also demonstrate
patience acceptance, which happens to be part of the family’s emotional regulation. Having a certain emotion regulation process helps lessen the family burden.
Family values influence the emotion regulation process. Therefore, further study
on family values other than religiosity is required to study the family’s cultural
values. Cultural context plays a role in expressing positive emotion in the emotion
regulation process. Thus, further research on emotion regulation related to the
family burden of caretaking families of schizophrenic individuals shall pay more
attention to cultural context.