Journal of Clinical Nursing, 24(3-4), 2015, pp.332-343.
Publisher:
John Wiley and Sons
Aims and Objectives: To clarify the concept of ‘expressed emotion’ and its application to caregivers of older adults with dementia.
Background: Expressed emotion has been a useful construct for understanding the quality of family relationships affecting patients with mental illness and their caregivers. However, this concept has been developed without precisely defining ‘expressed emotion’ as it pertains to dementia patients. Clarity regarding expressed emotion will enable nurses to apply knowledge of expressed emotion and provide important information for the development of new clinical interventions for this specific population.
Design: Integrative review.
Methods: A review of literature on expressed emotion by caregivers of older adults with dementia. The inclusion criteria were: (1) published in English or Chinese during 1970–2012; (2) included both research and theoretical review articles on expressed emotion in nursing and other disciplines such as psychology, psychiatry and sociology. Initially, 236 articles were screened, and finally, 32 articles were evaluated for this review.
Results: Emotional expression and expressed emotion were discussed to clarify the distinctions and address overlap between these two similar terms. In addition, expressed emotion was examined further from three different aspects: trait or state, social control and cross-cultural. Finally, the results of reviewed papers for expressed emotion on dementia patients were explored and synthesised.
Conclusion: A conceptual definition and a theoretical framework for the concept of expressed emotion are urgently needed to further our understanding of this critical phenomenon. With increasing attention to caregiving for patients with dementia, including the concept of expressed emotion in the research of this field may accelerate understanding of the importance of the family dynamics in advanced ageing caregiving.
Relevance to clinical practice: The expressed emotion concept could guide much of current clinical practice and help professional nurses understand the family's experience and perspective on mental illness, especially regarding dementia within the family.
(Publisher abstract)
Aims and Objectives: To clarify the concept of ‘expressed emotion’ and its application to caregivers of older adults with dementia.
Background: Expressed emotion has been a useful construct for understanding the quality of family relationships affecting patients with mental illness and their caregivers. However, this concept has been developed without precisely defining ‘expressed emotion’ as it pertains to dementia patients. Clarity regarding expressed emotion will enable nurses to apply knowledge of expressed emotion and provide important information for the development of new clinical interventions for this specific population.
Design: Integrative review.
Methods: A review of literature on expressed emotion by caregivers of older adults with dementia. The inclusion criteria were: (1) published in English or Chinese during 1970–2012; (2) included both research and theoretical review articles on expressed emotion in nursing and other disciplines such as psychology, psychiatry and sociology. Initially, 236 articles were screened, and finally, 32 articles were evaluated for this review.
Results: Emotional expression and expressed emotion were discussed to clarify the distinctions and address overlap between these two similar terms. In addition, expressed emotion was examined further from three different aspects: trait or state, social control and cross-cultural. Finally, the results of reviewed papers for expressed emotion on dementia patients were explored and synthesised.
Conclusion: A conceptual definition and a theoretical framework for the concept of expressed emotion are urgently needed to further our understanding of this critical phenomenon. With increasing attention to caregiving for patients with dementia, including the concept of expressed emotion in the research of this field may accelerate understanding of the importance of the family dynamics in advanced ageing caregiving.
Relevance to clinical practice: The expressed emotion concept could guide much of current clinical practice and help professional nurses understand the family's experience and perspective on mental illness, especially regarding dementia within the family.
(Publisher abstract)
Dementia: the International Journal of Social Research and Practice, 9(3), August 2010, pp.327-353.
Publisher:
Sage
The issues of family caregiving are an important concern that has led to many studies, mainly related to its negative impact on caregivers such as burden or stress. However, more recent research has, in the last decade, introduced the concept of positive aspects of caregiving. Enhancing these positive aspects represents an innovative approach to caregivers’ support. Also, these aspects need more conceptualisation to underpin the development of such an approach. This article proposes a conceptual framework of the positive aspects of caregiving based on an integrative literature review. This conceptual framework, developed through a review of 40 articles, theses, and book chapters, provides a comprehensive model that should improve understanding of positive aspects of caregiving. The authors suggest that it could also contribute to the development of innovative support programmes based on the positive aspects instead of the negative aspects of caregiving.
The issues of family caregiving are an important concern that has led to many studies, mainly related to its negative impact on caregivers such as burden or stress. However, more recent research has, in the last decade, introduced the concept of positive aspects of caregiving. Enhancing these positive aspects represents an innovative approach to caregivers’ support. Also, these aspects need more conceptualisation to underpin the development of such an approach. This article proposes a conceptual framework of the positive aspects of caregiving based on an integrative literature review. This conceptual framework, developed through a review of 40 articles, theses, and book chapters, provides a comprehensive model that should improve understanding of positive aspects of caregiving. The authors suggest that it could also contribute to the development of innovative support programmes based on the positive aspects instead of the negative aspects of caregiving.
The Caring with Confidence scheme, launched in April 2009, is described. The scheme had been designed to improve support for carers in England over 18 by equipping them with skills to help them in their role. The scheme operates group sessions and online interactive sessions on subjects such as the emotions involved in caring for someone and how to develop coping strategies.
The Caring with Confidence scheme, launched in April 2009, is described. The scheme had been designed to improve support for carers in England over 18 by equipping them with skills to help them in their role. The scheme operates group sessions and online interactive sessions on subjects such as the emotions involved in caring for someone and how to develop coping strategies.
Dementia: the International Journal of Social Research and Practice, 7(1), February 2008, pp.55-69.
Publisher:
Sage
The primary purpose of this study was to examine the unique contribution of positive attitudes about helping others in predicting emotional functioning among a sample of dementia caregivers. Participants were 158 older (M = 68 years) caregivers residing in New Zealand. Participants completed surveys consisting of the Revised Ways of Coping Checklist, the Helping Attitudes Scale, the Positive and Negative Affect Scale and a tailored measure of demographic and caregiver contextual variables. Results indicated that helping attitudes had the largest correlation with positive affect (r = .31). Regression analyses also indicated that helping attitudes predicted positive affect with the other relevant demographic and coping variables controlled for statistically. This study indicates that having a positive attitude towards helping others may be an important determinant of positive emotional functioning among dementia caregivers and may help to offset the oft-cited negative consequences of caregiving. The implications for caregiver selection and caregiver intervention strategies are discussed.
The primary purpose of this study was to examine the unique contribution of positive attitudes about helping others in predicting emotional functioning among a sample of dementia caregivers. Participants were 158 older (M = 68 years) caregivers residing in New Zealand. Participants completed surveys consisting of the Revised Ways of Coping Checklist, the Helping Attitudes Scale, the Positive and Negative Affect Scale and a tailored measure of demographic and caregiver contextual variables. Results indicated that helping attitudes had the largest correlation with positive affect (r = .31). Regression analyses also indicated that helping attitudes predicted positive affect with the other relevant demographic and coping variables controlled for statistically. This study indicates that having a positive attitude towards helping others may be an important determinant of positive emotional functioning among dementia caregivers and may help to offset the oft-cited negative consequences of caregiving. The implications for caregiver selection and caregiver intervention strategies are discussed.
International Journal of Care and Caring, 3(4), 2019, pp.531-548.
Publisher:
Policy Press
Emotions may be pivotal to understanding how fragmented care systems for older adults can generate structural carer burden. Analysing 78 interviews with 32 carers who navigated formal services in a Western Canadian city, the research explores and distinguishes between emotional responses to navigation challenges and the emotion work that navigation entails. Emotional responses had a temporal
(Edited publisher abstract)
Emotions may be pivotal to understanding how fragmented care systems for older adults can generate structural carer burden. Analysing 78 interviews with 32 carers who navigated formal services in a Western Canadian city, the research explores and distinguishes between emotional responses to navigation challenges and the emotion work that navigation entails. Emotional responses had a temporal dimension, and, at times, both positive and negative emotions coexisted simultaneously. Symbolic and normative understandings of interactions with providers, and of ‘caring well’, shaped emotion work throughout navigation. Discussion focuses on how broader contexts, through emotional processes, indirectly contribute to carer stress and strain.
(Edited publisher abstract)
Subject terms:
older people, emotions, carers, stress, access to services;
Aging and Mental Health, 16(6), August 2012, pp.683-688.
Publisher:
Taylor and Francis
Positive aspects of caring may help buffer carers from the negative psychological and physical consequences of caregiving. Self-efficacy is a potentially modifiable psychological construct that has been associated with positive thinking, improved control of negative affect, and enhanced motivation. This study investigated the relationship between positive aspects of caregiving and self-efficacy
Positive aspects of caring may help buffer carers from the negative psychological and physical consequences of caregiving. Self-efficacy is a potentially modifiable psychological construct that has been associated with positive thinking, improved control of negative affect, and enhanced motivation. This study investigated the relationship between positive aspects of caregiving and self-efficacy among 57 family members caring for a family member with Alzheimer's disease in Boston, Massachusetts, United States. Participant data was gathered through individual interviews conducted as a part of a larger randomised controlled trial of a caregiver intervention. Result revealed that self-efficacy accounted for a significant percentage of the variance in positive aspects of caregiving after controlling for other factors commonly associated with positive aspects of caregiving including caregiver demographics, care recipient neuropsychiatric symptoms, and caregiver depression.
Ethics and Social Welfare, 5(2), June 2011, pp.110-122.
Publisher:
Taylor and Francis
Place of publication:
Abingdon
... and vulnerabilities of carers and recipients, and its concern with how relations of care are shaped by social hierarchies and public institutions. Also, it goes beyond the current preoccupations of care ethicists both by introducing gratitude as an important aspect of morally valuable relations of care and by emphasising the significance of attending not only to the needs but also the capacities of adult care
In this paper, the author argues that it is correct for those receiving personal care to feel and express gratitude when care providers are inspired partly by compassion, and deliver a real benefit in a manner that conveys respect for the recipient. The papers focus on gratitude is consistent with important aspects of feminist ethics of care, including its attention to the particularities and vulnerabilities of carers and recipients, and its concern with how relations of care are shaped by social hierarchies and public institutions. Also, it goes beyond the current preoccupations of care ethicists both by introducing gratitude as an important aspect of morally valuable relations of care and by emphasising the significance of attending not only to the needs but also the capacities of adult care recipients.
Subject terms:
informal care, adults, carers, emotions, empowerment;
The relation between Expressed Emotion (EE) and caregiver acceptance was tested with the use of video-recorded interactions between 31 Mexican American family caregivers and their relatives with schizophrenia. Borrowing the concept from Integrative Behavioral Couple Therapy, acceptance was defined as caregiver's engagement with the ill relative along with low levels of expectations for behavioural change. Three aspects of caregiver acceptance were measured: global acceptance of the patient, unified detachment (i.e., nonblaming but engaged problem discussion), and low aversive responses to patient behaviour (e.g., criticisms and demanding change). Relative to high EE caregivers, low EE caregivers were consistently more accepting of their ill relatives across the three measures of acceptance. Unified detachment was negatively associated with emotional over involvement and aversive responses were positively related to criticism. Warmth was not related to acceptance. The findings suggest that the study of acceptance in family caregivers is a heuristic avenue for future research due to its potential to shed light on specifically what family members do in caring for their ill relatives with schizophrenia.
The relation between Expressed Emotion (EE) and caregiver acceptance was tested with the use of video-recorded interactions between 31 Mexican American family caregivers and their relatives with schizophrenia. Borrowing the concept from Integrative Behavioral Couple Therapy, acceptance was defined as caregiver's engagement with the ill relative along with low levels of expectations for behavioural change. Three aspects of caregiver acceptance were measured: global acceptance of the patient, unified detachment (i.e., nonblaming but engaged problem discussion), and low aversive responses to patient behaviour (e.g., criticisms and demanding change). Relative to high EE caregivers, low EE caregivers were consistently more accepting of their ill relatives across the three measures of acceptance. Unified detachment was negatively associated with emotional over involvement and aversive responses were positively related to criticism. Warmth was not related to acceptance. The findings suggest that the study of acceptance in family caregivers is a heuristic avenue for future research due to its potential to shed light on specifically what family members do in caring for their ill relatives with schizophrenia.
... It then presents findings on the impact of cancer on everyday living, on emotional well-being, the impact on carers, and what people expect from cancer care organisations. It discusses the implications of these findings for Macmillan Cancer Support and makes three main recommendations to the Government.
This report is a summary of the findings of a research survey conducted by Opinion Leader Research (OLR) for Macmillan Cancer Support. The survey explored the impact of a diagnosis of cancer on the lives of people with cancer and others affected by cancer such as family and friends. The content of the report includes an overview of the background to the research and its main findings. It then presents findings on the impact of cancer on everyday living, on emotional well-being, the impact on carers, and what people expect from cancer care organisations. It discusses the implications of these findings for Macmillan Cancer Support and makes three main recommendations to the Government.
Subject terms:
stress, carers, cancer, emotions, family relations;
... into detail about the difficulties of caring for someone who is depressed. She explores how depression affects relationships and the emotions of the carers, as well as offering practical advice on how to best help the person who is ill.
Depression has a huge impact on the lives of both people who suffer from it, and those who live with them or care for them. While a lot of attention is given to people who suffer from depression, the effect on those who have to live with it, and care for sufferers is overlooked. In this book, aimed and friends and family. The author describes the condition, causes, symptoms and treatment and goes into detail about the difficulties of caring for someone who is depressed. She explores how depression affects relationships and the emotions of the carers, as well as offering practical advice on how to best help the person who is ill.