Poor Disgust Suppression Is Associated with Increased Anxiety in Caregivers of People with Neurodegenerative Disease

Emotion Regulation Strategies and Mental Health in Dementia Caregivers: The Moderating Role of Gender

INTRODUCTION

Providing care for a loved one with dementia can engender intense emotions that contribute to symptoms of anxiety and depression. Caregivers often attempt to regulate their emotions using strategies like cognitive reappraisal (CR; changing how they think about the situation) or expressive suppression (ES; hiding their emotions). However, men and women caregivers may differ in their use of these strategies. The current study examines gender differences in reported CR and ES usage and their associations with depression and anxiety in dementia caregivers.

METHODS

We combined data from three independent studies of informal dementia caregivers (total N = 460) who reported on their use of CR, ES, and symptoms of anxiety and depression.

RESULTS

Women caregivers reported greater use of CR and less use of ES compared to men. Gender moderated the association between CR and depression, such that greater use of CR in women was associated with fewer depressive symptoms, but not for men. Gender did not significantly moderate the association between ES and depression, or between either emotion regulation strategy and anxiety.

CONCLUSION

Findings of a unique relationship between greater CR use and less depression among women CGs, although correlational, suggest that utilizing CR may be particularly helpful for reducing depression in women caregivers. These results underscore the need for further research to determine how best to support the mental well-being of dementia caregivers.

Emotion Regulation in Couples Across Adulthood

Intimate relationships are hotbeds of emotion. This article presents key findings and current directions in research on couples' emotion regulation across adulthood as a critical context in which older adults not only maintain functioning but may also outshine younger adults. First, I introduce key concepts, defining qualities (i.e., dynamic, coregulatory, bidirectional, bivalent), and measures (i.e., self-report versus performance-based) of couples' emotion regulation. Second, I highlight a socioemotional turn in our understanding of adult development with the advent of socioemotional selectivity theory. Third, I offer a life-span developmental perspective on emotion regulation in couples (i.e., across infancy, adolescence and young adulthood, midlife, and late life). Finally, I present the idea that emotion regulation may shift from "me to us" across adulthood and discuss how emotion regulation in couples may become more important, better, and increasingly consequential (e.g., for relationship outcomes, well-being, and health) with age. Ideas for future research are then discussed.

Empathic Accuracy and Shared Depressive Symptoms in Close Relationships

Empathic accuracy, the ability to accurately understand others' emotions, is typically viewed as beneficial for mental health. However, empathic accuracy may be problematic when a close relational partner is depressed because it promotes shared depression. Across two studies, we measured empathic accuracy using laboratory tasks that capture the ability to rate others' emotional valence accurately over time: first, in a sample of 156 neurotypical married couples (Study 1; Total N=312), and then in a sample of 102 informal caregivers of individuals with dementia (Study 2). Across both studies, the association between empathic accuracy and depressive symptoms varied as a function of a partner's level of depressive symptoms. Greater empathic accuracy was associated with (a) fewer depressive symptoms when a partner lacked depressive symptoms, but (b) more depressive symptoms when a partner had high levels of depressive symptoms. Accurately detecting changes in others' emotional valence may underpin shared depressive symptoms.

Caregivers' Profiles Based on the Canadian Occupational Performance Measure for the Adoption of Assistive Technologies

The COPM (Canadian Occupational Performance Measure) is a tool that is based on the identification of self-perceived performance and satisfaction problems in the performance of occupations, allowing the creation of a hierarchy in the order of the interventions to be carried out, and speeding up the identification of the necessary AT (Assistive Technologies). Given the importance of the caregiver's perception about their own performance in the design of AT, this research examines the caregiver's profile through the COPM. A sample of 40 caregivers volunteered to participate in the study. A cluster analysis was carried out on the COPM scores. Two caregiver profiles were found in relation to the COPM measure, one with low scores on performance and satisfaction and another with high scores on both of these two variables. The main predictor was found to be the self-perception of performance. The structure was replicated through a hierarchical cluster analysis, where the role of caregivers was of interest. These results are relevant on both a theoretical and practical level.

Emotional and Cognitive Empathy in Caregivers of Persons with Neurodegenerative Disease: Relationships with Caregiver Mental Health

Caregiving for a person with dementia or neurodegenerative disease (PWD) is associated with increased rates of depression and anxiety. As the population ages and dementia prevalence increases worldwide, mental health problems related to dementia caregiving will become an even more pressing public health concern. The present study assessed emotional empathy (physiological, behavioral, and self-reported emotional responses to a film depicting others suffering) and two measures of cognitive empathy (identifying the primary emotion experienced by another person; providing continuous ratings of the valence of another person's changing emotions) in relation to mental health (standard questionnaires) in 78 caregivers of PWDs. Greater emotional empathy (self-reported emotional responses) was associated with worse mental health, even after accounting for known risk factors. Neither measure of cognitive empathy was associated with mental health. A relationship between high levels of emotional empathy and poor mental health in caregivers suggests possible risk indicators and intervention targets.