Gone but Not Forgotten; How Caregivers of a Partner With Dementia Experience Predeath Grief
Young-onset dementia is diagnosed when an individual is under the age of 65, and has been diagnosed in over 200,000 Americans. Often the individual’s partner will take on the caretaker role, which can lead to increased perceived stress and predeath grief in the spouse. Researchers examined the link between personality factors (including personal resourcefulness and social resourcefulness) and the relationship these factors have with the development of predeath grief and perceived stress. The authors of this paper hypothesized that personal and social resourcefulness moderate the relationship between predeath grief and perceived stress in caregivers for a spouse with young-onset dementia. Additionally, the researchers hypothesized that predeath grief is positively related to perceived stress.
To test their hypothesis, researchers surveyed 104 caregivers of spouses with young-onset dementia. They used the Marwit Meuser Caregiver Grief Inventory Short form, which contains 18 questions that requires the responder to select a number from 1-5 on how much they agree with the above statements. This questionnaire measures the respondents level of predeath grief and perceived stress. Following this survey, participants responded to the 28-question Resourcefulness Scale. This scale measures a respondent’s level of both personal and social resourcefulness. Researchers compared the scores of high-predeath grief and levels of resourcefulness to the scores of low-predeath grief and levels of resourcefulness.
Through data analysis, researchers first found that there is a large positive correlation between predeath grief and perceived stress. Next, researchers found that low levels of personal and social resourcefulness account for predeath grief and perceived stress on their own, but when an individual has low levels of both there is an interaction effect (where the caregiver would experience higher levels of predeath grief than if they had low levels of either personal or social resourcefulness in isolation). The authors conclude their paper with the suggestion to use this new data to screen individuals who may have a high risk of developing predeath grief when caring for a spouse with young-onset dementia, allowing intervention teams to know who they need to focus on when preventing and treating predeath grief.
Source:
Kobiske, K. R., Bekhet, A. K., Garnier-Villarreal, M., & Frenn, M. (2019). Predeath Grief, Resourcefulness, and Perceived Stress Among Caregivers of Partners With Young-Onset Dementia. Western Journal of Nursing Research, 41(7), 973–989. https://doi.org/10.1177/0193945918806689
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