Objective To explore the potential categories of family resilience of the main caregivers of stroke patients, and analyze the differences in family caring degree of each category.

Methods By convenience sampling method, 264 stroke patients' caregivers in a tertiary grade A hospital in Anhui province were selected as the research objects, and investigated using the general data questionnaire, family flexibility rating scale and family caring index evaluation scale. The potential categories of family resilience of caregivers were analyzed to explore its influencing factors.

Results The family resilience of the main caregivers of stroke patients was divided into three categories, which included the low resilience-lack of social support group (28 people ,10.61%), medium resilience-stable adjustment group (138 people, 52.27%) and high resilience-positive reality group (98 people, 37.12%). The results of univariate analysis showed that the differences of occupational status, stroke type, medical expense payment method, caregiver age, residence, perceived health status, sleep quality, daily care time and family caring scores among three groups were statistically significant (P ＜ 0.05 to P ＜ 0.01). The results of multiple logistic regression analysis showed that the family caring score, stroke type, perceived health status of caregivers and average daily care time were the independent influencing factors of family stress tolerance of major caregivers of stroke patients (P ＜ 0.05 to P ＜ 0.01).

Conclusions There are three potential categories of family resilience in caregivers of stroke patients. Medical staff should pay attention to the early identification of risk factors, pay attention to the positive effect of family caring degree, and help caregivers to timely self-regulate, so as to improve their family resilience.