Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-t5tsf Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-06T01:20:52.439Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Positive psychology outcome measures for family caregivers of people living with dementia: a systematic review

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  17 May 2017

Jacki Stansfeld*
Affiliation:
Division of Psychiatry, University College London, Maple House, London, UK Research and Development, North East London NHS Foundation Trust, Goodmayes Hospital, UK
Charlotte R. Stoner
Affiliation:
Department of Clinical, Educational and Health Psychology, University College London, London, UK
Jennifer Wenborn
Affiliation:
Division of Psychiatry, University College London, Maple House, London, UK Research and Development, North East London NHS Foundation Trust, Goodmayes Hospital, UK
Myrra Vernooij-Dassen
Affiliation:
Radboud University Medical Centre, Nijmegen, the Netherlands
Esme Moniz-Cook
Affiliation:
Faculty of Health and Social Care, University of Hull, UK
Martin Orrell
Affiliation:
Institute of Mental Health, University of Nottingham, Nottingham, UK
*
Correspondence should be addressed to: Jacki Stansfeld, Division of Psychiatry, University College London, Maple House, 149 Tottenham Court Road, London, W1T 7NF. Phone: +0300-555-1200 ext 64491/07834392294. Email: [email protected].

Abstract

Background:

Family caregivers of people living with dementia can have both positive and negative experiences of caregiving. Despite this, existing outcome measures predominately focus on negative aspects of caregiving such as burden and depression. This review aimed to evaluate the development and psychometric properties of existing positive psychology measures for family caregivers of people living with dementia to determine their potential utility in research and practice.

Method:

A systematic review of positive psychology outcome measures for family caregivers of people with dementia was conducted. The databases searched were as follows: PsychINFO, CINAHL, MEDLINE, EMBASE, and PubMed. Scale development papers were subject to a quality assessment to appraise psychometric properties.

Results:

Twelve positive outcome measures and six validation papers of these scales were identified. The emerging constructs of self-efficacy, spirituality, resilience, rewards, gain, and meaning are in line with positive psychology theory.

Conclusions:

There are some robust positive measures in existence for family caregivers of people living with dementia. However, lack of reporting of the psychometric properties hindered the quality assessment of some outcome measures identified in this review. Future research should aim to include positive outcome measures in interventional research to facilitate a greater understanding of the positive aspects of caregiving and how these contribute to well-being.

Type
Review Article
Copyright
Copyright © International Psychogeriatric Association 2017 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Ai, A. L., Tice, T. N., Peterson, C. and Huang, B. (2005). Prayers, spiritual support, and positive attitudes in coping with the September 11 national crisis. Journal of Personality, 73, 763792.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Alzheimer's Society (2014). Dementia 2014: Opportunity for Change. London: Alzheimer's Society.Google Scholar
Aneshensel, C. S., Pearlin, L. I., Mullan, J. T., Zarit, S. H. and Whitlatch, C. J. (1995). Profiles in Caregiving: The Unexpected Career. London: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Antonovsky, A. (1993). The structure and properties of the sense of coherence scale. Social Science & Medicine, 36, 725733.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Beck, A. T., Steer, R. A. and Brown, G. K. (1996). Beck Depression Inventory-II. San Antonio: The Psychological Corporation.Google Scholar
Carbonneau, H., Caron, C. and Desrosiers, J. (2010). Development of a conceptual framework of positive aspects of caregiving in dementia. Dementia, 9, 327353.Google Scholar
Clarke, C. and Wolverson, E. (2016). Positive Psychology Approaches to Dementia. London: Jessica Kingsley Publishers.Google Scholar
Connor, K. M. and Davidson, J. R. (2003). Development of a new resilience scale: the connor-davidson resilience scale (CD-RISC). Depression and Anxiety, 18, 7682.Google Scholar
Cooper, C., Balamurali, T. B. S., Selwood, A. and Livingston, G. (2007). A systematic review of intervention studies about anxiety in carers of people with dementia. International Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry, 22, 181188.Google Scholar
Crellin, N. E., Orrell, M., McDermott, O. and Charlesworth, G. (2014). Self-efficacy and health-related quality of life in family carers of people with dementia: a systematic review. Aging & Mental Health, 18, 954969.Google Scholar
Crespo, M., Lopez, J., and Zarit, S. H. (2005). Depression and anxiety in primary carers: a comparative study of carers of demented and nondemented older persons. International Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry, 20, 591592.Google Scholar
Dickinson, C., Dow, J., Gibson, G., Hayes, L., Robalino, S. and Robinson, L. (2016). Psychosocial intervention for carers of people with dementia: what components are most effective and when? a systematic review of systematic reviews. International Psychogeriatrics, 26, 113.Google Scholar
Farran, C. J., Miller, B. H., Kaufman, J. E., Donner, E. and Fogg, L. (1999). Finding meaning through caregiving: development of an instrument for family caregivers of persons with Alzheimer's disease. Journal of Clinical Psychology, 55, 11071125.Google Scholar
Fortinsky, R. H., Kercher, K. and Burant, C. J. (2002). Measurement and correlates of family caregiver self-efficacy for managing dementia. Aging & Mental Health, 6, 153160.Google Scholar
Gough, H. R., Wilks, S. E. and Prattini, R. J. (2010). Spirituality among Alzheimer's caregivers: psychometric reevaluation of the intrinsic spirituality scale. Journal of Social Service Research, 36, 278288.Google Scholar
Hodge, D. R. (2003). The intrinsic spirituality scale: a new six-item instrument for assessing the salience of spirituality as a motivational construct. Journal of Social Service Research, 30, 4161.Google Scholar
Keyes, C. L. M. and Lopez, S. J. (2005). Toward a science of mental health: Positive directions in diagnosis and interventions. In Snyder, C. R. and Lopez, S. J. (eds.), Handbook of Positive Psychology (pp. 4562). Oxford, England: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Koerner, S. S., Kenyon, D. B. and Shirai, Y. (2009). Caregiving for elder relatives: which caregivers experience personal benefits/gains?. Archives of Gerontology and Geriatrics, 48, 238245.Google Scholar
Lawton, M. P., Moss, M., Kleban, M. H., Glicksman, A. and Rovine, M. (1991). A two-factor model of caregiving appraisal and psychological well-being. Journal of Gerontology, 46, 181189.Google Scholar
Lazarus, R. S. and Folkman, S. (1984). Stress, Appraisal, and Coping. New York: Springer publishing company.Google Scholar
Macaskill, A. (2016). Review of positive psychology applications in clinical medical populations. Healthcare, 4, 66.Google Scholar
Moher, D., Liberati, A., Tetzlaff, J. and Altman, D. G. (2009). Preferred reporting item carers: a comparative study of carers of demented and nondemented older persons. International Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry, 20, 591592.Google Scholar
Orgeta, V. and Leung, P. (2015). Personality and dementia caring: a review and commentary. Current Opinion in Psychiatry, 28, 5765.Google Scholar
Pearlin, L. I., Mullan, J. T., Semple, S. J. and Skaff, M. M. (1990). Caregiving and the stress process: an overview of concepts and their measures. The Gerontologist, 30, 583594.Google Scholar
Peterson, C. and Seligman, M. E. P. (2003) Values in Action (VIA) classification of strengths manual. Retrieved from http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.485.384&rep=rep1&type=pdf Google Scholar
Picot, S. J., Youngblut, J. and Zeller, R. (1997). Development and testing of a measure of perceived caregiver rewards in adults. Journal of Nursing Measurement, 5, 3352.Google Scholar
Roff, L. L., Burgio, L. D., Gitlin, L., Nichols, L., Chaplin, W. and Hardin, J. M. (2004). Positive aspects of Alzheimer's caregiving: the role of race. The Journals of Gerontology Series B: Psychological Sciences and Social Sciences, 59, 185190.Google Scholar
Ryff, C. D. (1989). Happiness is everything, or is it? explorations on the meaning of psychological well-being. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 57, 10691081.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Seligman, M. E., Steen, T. A., Park, N. and Peterson, C. (2005). Positive psychology progress: empirical validation of interventions. American Psychologist, 60, 410421.Google Scholar
Spielberger, C. D., Jacobs, G., Russell, S. and Crane, R. S. (1983). Assessment of anger: the state-trait anger scale. Advances in Personality Assessment, 2, 159187.Google Scholar
Steffen, A. M., McKibbin, C., Zeiss, A. M., Gallagher-Thompson, D. and Bandura, A. (2002). The revised scale for caregiving self-efficacy reliability and validity studies. The Journals of Gerontology Series B: Psychological Sciences and Social Sciences, 57, 7486.Google Scholar
Stoner, C. R., Orrell, M. and Spector, A. (2015). Review of positive psychology outcome measures for chronic illness, traumatic brain injury and older adults: adaptability in dementia? Dementia and Geriatric Cognitive Disorders, 40, 340357.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Tarlow, B. J., Wisniewski, S. R., Belle, S. H., Rubert, M., Ory, M. G. and Gallagher-Thompson, D. (2004). Positive aspects of caregiving contributions of the reach project to the development of new measures for Alzheimer's caregiving. Research on Aging, 26, 429453.Google Scholar
Terwee, C. B. et al. (2007). Quality criteria were proposed for measurement properties of health status questionnaires. Journal of Clinical Epidemiology, 60, 3442.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Tremont, G. (2011). Family caregiving in dementia. Medicine and Health, Rhode Island, 94, 3648.Google Scholar
Vernooij-Dassen, M. J. F. J. (1993). Dementia and Homecare: Determinants of the Sense of Competence of Primary Caregivers and the Effect of Professionally Guided Caregiver Support. Lisse: Swets & Zeitlinger.Google Scholar
Vernooij-Dassen, M. J., Felling, A. J., Brummelkamp, E., Dauzenberg, M. G., Bos, G. A. and Grol, R. (1999). Assessment of caregiver's competence in dealing with the burden of caregiving for a dementia patient: a short sense of competence questionnaire (SSCQ) suitable for clinical practice. Journal of the American Geriatrics Society, 47, 256257.Google Scholar
Vernooij-Dassen, M. J., Persoon, J. M. and Felling, A. J. (1996). Predictors of sense of competence in caregivers of demented persons. Social Science & Medicine, 43, 4149.Google Scholar
Wilks, S. E. (2008). Psychometric evaluation of the shortened resilience scale among Alzheimer's caregivers. American Journal of Alzheimer's Disease and Other Dementias, 23, 143149.Google Scholar
Wilks, S. E., Ketchum, M. M., Chen, Z. and Bowman, A. M. (2013). Psychometric reevaluation of the spiritual support scale in a sample of Alzheimer's caregivers. Journal of Religion & Spirituality in Social Work: Social Thought, 32, 313329.Google Scholar
Wilks, S. E., Little, K. G., Gough, H. R. and Spurlock, W. J. (2011). Alzheimer's aggression: influences on caregiver coping and resilience. Journal of Gerontological Social Work, 54, 260275.Google Scholar
Windle, G., Bennett, K. M. and Noyes, J. (2011). A methodological review of resilience measurement scales. Health and Quality of Life Outcomes, 9, 8.Google Scholar
World Health Organization. (2012). Dementia: A public Health Priority. Switzerland: World Health Organization.Google Scholar
Yap, P., Luo, N., Ng, W. Y., Chionh, H. L., Lim, J. and Goh, J. (2010). Gain in Alzheimer care instrument—a new scale to measure caregiving gains in dementia. The American Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry, 18, 6876.Google Scholar
Zhang, S. Y., Edwards, H., Yates, P., Ruth, E. and Guo, Q. H. (2012). Development of self-efficacy questionnaire for Chinese family caregivers. International Journal of Mental Health Nursing, 21, 358365.Google Scholar
Zhang, S. Y., Edwards, H., Yates, P., Ruth, E. and Guo, Q. (2013). Preliminary reliability and validity testing of a self-efficacy questionnaire for Chinese family caregivers. Aging & Mental Health, 5, 630637.Google Scholar