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Daily stress processes in a pandemic: the effects of worry, age, and affect
- Authors:
- NELSON Niccole A., BERGEMAN Cindy S.
- Journal article citation:
- Gerontologist, 61(2), 2021, pp.196-204.
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
Background and Objectives: In March 2020, the World Health Organization declared the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) a pandemic. Given that such a global event might affect day-to-day stress processes, the current study examined individuals’ daily stress reactivity and its moderators early in the COVID-19 pandemic. Research Design and Methods: Two-level, multilevel models examined the daily relationship between perceived stress and negative affect, or stress reactivity, as well as the moderating effects of daily pandemic worry, age, and daily positive affect on this process. Participants included 349 individuals (age range = 26–89) from the Notre Dame Study of Health & Well-being who completed a 28-day, daily diary study at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. Results: Older individuals were less stress-reactive than younger individuals. Within individuals, however, stress reactivity was buffered by daily positive affect and exacerbated by daily pandemic worry. Finally, although daily positive affect buffered daily stress reactivity, this effect was weaker on days individuals were more worried about the COVID-19 pandemic. Discussion and Implications: The mobilization of positive emotion may be a promising avenue for buffering stress reactivity during the COVID-19 pandemic, although this may be limited on days individuals are particularly concerned about the pandemic. (Edited publisher abstract)
The emotional landscape of accessing and navigating formal supports for older adults in one Western Canadian city
- Authors:
- FUNK Laura M., HOUNSLOW Wanda
- Journal article citation:
- 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 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)
Social support as a moderator of the relationship between religious participation and psychological distress in a sample of community dwelling older adults
- Author:
- DULIN Patrick L.
- Journal article citation:
- Mental Health Religion and Culture, 8(2), June 2005, pp.81-86.
- Publisher:
- Taylor and Francis
- Place of publication:
- Philadelphia, USA
This study investigated relationships among religious participation, social support, and psychological distress within a sample of older adults while controlling for the influence of significant demographic variables. Community-dwelling older adults between the ages of 65 and 90 (n = 115) completed a packet of instruments including the Negative Affect Scale of the PANAS, the Social Provisions Scale (SPS) and a tailored survey that included questions regarding religious participation and demographic variables. Correlational and multiple regression analyses were performed to determine predictors of negative affect. Results indicated that religious participation continued to predict negative affect with the effect of demographic variables statistically controlled for. Subjective social support was also found to moderate the relationship between religious participation and psychological distress. Religious participation appears to be more important regarding alleviating distress for those elderly low in social support compared with those high in social support. Religious participation may thus occupy an important position with regards to factors that manage psychological distress among elderly individuals, particularly for those low in social support.
Psychodynamic observation and emotional mapping. A tool for continuing professional development and research in services for older people
- Author:
- DAVENHILL Rachael
- Journal article citation:
- Quality in Ageing, 10(1), March 2009, pp.32-39.
- Publisher:
- Pier Professional
- Place of publication:
- Brighton
This article looks at how psychoanalytic and systems theory can be used to understand the pressures for individual practitioners and for organisations working with older people. Psychodynamic observation and emotional mapping (POEM) is a professional development (CPD), supervisory research process, which works from the 'inside out'. It aims to ensure that staff experience is placed at the heart of understanding meaningful, relationship-centred care in the workplace. Central to this process is the assumption that feelings occurring 'under the surface' in both staff and patients are important channels of communication impacting on staff, care practice and the service setting. The POEM approach facilitates the digestion and understanding of both conscious and unconscious processes in the workplace. It also contributes to a healthier, more open workplace.
Adult daughters and aging mothers: the role of guilt in the experience of caregiver burden
- Authors:
- GONYEA Judith G., PARIS Ruth, de SAXE ZERDEN Lisa
- Journal article citation:
- Aging and Mental Health, 12(5), September 2008, pp.559-567.
- Publisher:
- Taylor and Francis
Although guilt is often identified as being a common emotion experienced by family caregivers in the clinical literature and in small descriptive studies, it has only recently emerged as a construct in the empirical research focused on identifying predictors of caregiver distress. Using Pearlin's stress process model, and based on data from 66 midlife adult daughters caring for aging mothers, this study explored the extent to which guilt contributes to caregiver burden. Hierarchical regression analysis revealed that guilt was positively correlated with burden and that it accounted for a significant amount of the variance in caregiver's sense of burden even after contextual and stressor variables were controlled. The research suggests the importance of clinicians seeking to understand how individuals judge their caregiving performance and targeting negative self-appraisals, which affect individuals' mental health, for change. The challenge for clinicians is to help guilt-ridden caregivers revise their evaluative standards and engage in self-forgiveness and self-acceptance.
What shall we do with mother?: what to do when your elderly parent is dependent on you
- Author:
- STAAL Rosie
- Publisher:
- White Ladder
- Publication year:
- 2006
- Pagination:
- 180p.
- Place of publication:
- Great Ambrook
One of the toughest phases of life comes when a parent becomes dependent on their children This book follows the stories of people who have been there, and offers advice and ideas for coping with the guilt, the emotional stress, the conflicting pressures on your time, and the family tensions that can arise.
Resilience and adaptation to stress in later life: empirical perspectives and conceptual implications
- Authors:
- ONG Anthony D., BERGEMAN C.S.
- Journal article citation:
- Ageing International, 29(3), 2004, pp.219-246.
- Publisher:
- Springer
- Place of publication:
- New York
As it has become more widely recognized that increasing numbers of people are living to progressively older ages, it is important to understand the nature of individual traits that promote resilience and well-being in later life, to describe how these traits develop, to identify the factors that threaten and undermine their maintenance, and to elucidate the mechanisms that support and promote their growth. To have a knowledge base upon which to build intervention programs to improve and maintain well-being in later life, it is necessary to build understanding of what the multiple pathways are that lead to resilience, how these pathways may change, and what can be done to stop or forestall maladjustment and decline. In this article, the authors highlight theoretical areas of research on resilience and well-being that have received relatively little attention in previous work with older adults. They also identify unresolved methodological challenges associated with the measurement and analysis of within-person phenomena and elaborate on the implications of these challenges for process research in aging populations. Finally, future intervention directions to advance knowledge of resilience and positive health in later adulthood are discussed.
Managing emotional and psychological distress in older people
- Author:
- CHAPMAN Felicity
- Journal article citation:
- Working with Older People, 22(4), 2018, pp.234-242.
- Publisher:
- Emerald
Purpose: Much has been written about helping those with dementia. But what about those for whom distress is not primarily related to a neurological cause and there is no psychiatric history? The purpose of this paper is to offer a guide for allied health professionals and family carers to manage distress in older people who are able to engage in language based communication and who are experiencing significant change or loss. Design/methodology/approach: This practice informed paper draws on the authors’ extensive experience working as a mental health social worker who specializes in work with older people in the community and in care, with family carers and in educating allied health professionals on how to manage presentations of distress in older people. Findings: Three foundational management strategies are discussed: understand the reason for distress, implement the C.A.R.E. Plan and maximize comfort in exploration and referral. Research limitations/implications: This viewpoint piece has not been substantiated through research and does not reflect training in the field of clinical geropsychology. Originality/value: The ideas in this paper are original and are practical solutions to common problems that can be faced by workers or family in close contact with older people. The information can be applied immediately to whatever setting is relevant for the reader and is written in easy to understand language. Furthermore, its aim is not only to increase skill and confidence for the reader but also to promote the emotional and psychological wellbeing of older people. (Publisher abstract)
Positive reappraisal in older adults: a systematic literature review
- Authors:
- NOWLANA Jamie S., WUTHRICHA Viviana M., RAPEEA Ronald M.
- Journal article citation:
- Aging and Mental Health, 19(6), 2015, pp.475-484.
- Publisher:
- Taylor and Francis
Objectives: This paper reviews the research on positive reappraisal in older adults. Positive reappraisal is a meaning-based cognitive emotion regulation strategy that is frequently used by older adults to deal with stressors. The strategy involves finding personally relevant positive meaning from an experience in the face of its negative reality. Method: Database searches identified 302 studies, of which 22 addressed positive reappraisal in older adult samples. The findings were categorised into four core themes: use and value for older adults, effects on mental health, benefit for physical illness, and influence of cognitive functioning and gender. Results: The literature indicates that positive reappraisal is an adaptive coping strategy for older adults with wide-ranging benefits. Specifically, positive reappraisal appears to be related to improved mental health for older adults, and particularly in the context of physical illness. Conclusion: Helping older adults find meaning in their negative experiences appears to be a worthwhile research area to pursue. Questions for future research on positive reappraisal in older adulthood are proposed. (Edited publisher abstract)
The secure base script and the task of caring for elderly parents: implications for attachment theory and clinical practice
- Authors:
- CHENA Cory K., et al
- Journal article citation:
- Attachment and Human Development, 15(3), 2013, pp.332-348.
- Publisher:
- Taylor and Francis
This study explores links between adults’ attachment representations and the task of caring for elderly parents with dementia. Participants were 87 adults serving as primary caregivers of a parent or parent-in-law with dementia in the United States. An Attachment Script Assessment was used to assess script-like attachment representation in the context of caring for their elderly parent. The quality of adult–elderly parent interactions was assessed using the Level of Expressed Emotions Scale and self-report measures of caregivers’ perception of caregiving as difficult. Caregivers’ secure base script knowledge predicted lower levels of negative expressed emotion. This effect was moderated by the extent to which participants experienced caring for elderly parents as difficult. Attachment representations played a greater role in caregiving when caregiving tasks were perceived as more difficult. These results support the hypothesis that attachment representations influence the quality of care that adults provide their elderly parents. Clinical implications are discussed. (Edited publisher abstract)