Dialogical and Integrated Self in Late Adulthood: Examining Two Adaptive Ways of Growing Old

The Mediating Effect of Caregiving Relationship Quality on the Association Between Caregiving Stressors and Mental Health Problems Among Older Spousal Caregivers

Providing care to a spouse can be especially challenging for older adults given their compounding stressors resulting from aging and caregiving. This cross-sectional study examines the relationships between caregiving stressors and caregiver mental health problems and the potential mediator (i.e., caregiving relationship quality) of these associations. A total of 431 Americans (≥65 years) were selected from the National Study of Caregiving. Path analysis shows that care assistance was positively associated with caregiver mental health problems, and this association was mediated by negative relationship quality (Indirect effect  =  .14, p  =  .016). Moreover, role overload was positively associated with caregiver mental health problems, which was mediated by negative relationship quality (indirect effect  =  .13, p  =  .002). Findings suggest that caregiving stressors can adversely affect mental health by exacerbating negative relationship quality. Interventions that limit negative exchanges and increase compassionate communications between older spousal caregivers and their care-receiving partners are needed.

Dialogical Integration of Life Experiences and Successful Aging

This article examines the hypothesis that the dialogical integration of life experiences is related to successful aging. Life story interviews with 93 older Czech adults were sorted into categories characterized by specific patterns of life experience integration: (i) without dialogical processes, (ii) with differentiated I-positions, (iii) with dialogical relationships, (iv) partially integrated, and (v) completely integrated. The results indicated that the categories were ordered, yielding low-level correlations with scales of successful aging in predicted directions. A comparison of the categories revealed that they were related to successful aging in a cumulative way, starting with the most essential indicator (lower scores of rumination) in the participants who had developed at least dialogical relationships, continuing to higher well-being linked with partial integration, and ending with an advanced indicator (optimism toward future) linked with complete integration. These relationships were summarized in a hypothetical model that is open to further examination.