Experiential Avoidance in a Sample of Dementia Caregivers
Open accessAbstract
Abstract Given the rapidly changing demographics, there will be an increasing number of individuals with dementia who will need significant support from informal caregivers. Providing care for an individual with dementia has been associated with negative outcomes in a number of domains including physical health, mental health, financial status and social functioning. There is a small but growing base of literature suggesting that fostering psychological flexibility, including acceptance, with dementia caregivers may be a helpful intervention. Experiential avoidance, which is the less adaptive alternative to acceptance, is the aversion from negative internal experiences including thoughts, feeling and physical sensations. Experiential avoidance has been found to be significantly related to depression and negative affect. The present study utilized online dementia caregiver support group samples (n = 158) to evaluate the relationship between experiential avoidance and general demographics, other aspects of psychological flexibility, and caregiver distress. Experiential avoidance was positively correlated with cognitive fusion (r(134) = .231, p < .01), caregiver burden (r(127) = .258, p < .01), and distress associated with dementia related behaviors (r(140) = .225, p < .01). Experiential avoidance was negatively correlated with engaged living (r(133) = -.244, p < .01), mindfulness (r(123) = -.187, p < .05), and self-rated health (r(138) = -.193, p < .05). Additionally, experiential avoidance was significantly higher for male caregivers (t(136)=2.462, p=.015) and those age 65 and over (t(134)=-2.421, p=.017). These findings support previous research that suggests experiential avoidance may be an important construct to target in future interventions with dementia caregivers.
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Limited literature is available on the relationship between psychological flexibility and dementia caregiver burden and depressive and anxiety symptoms.
“However, limited literature is available on its relationship with dementia caregiver burden, and depressive and anxiety symptoms [78,79,80].”
From Relationship of Psychological Flexibility and Mindfulness to Caregiver Burden, and Depressive and Anxiety Symptoms in Caregivers of People with Dementia (2023) · cites this paper as [78]
The GSA 2019 Annual Scientific Meeting passage describes a “small but growing” literature on psychological flexibility in dementia caregivers and reports an association between experiential avoidance and caregiver burden. It also mentions prior links with depression, but does not address anxiety symptoms or establish that the literature is limited for all three outcomes. (LLM, conf=0.84)
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Tan, K. P., Ang, J. K., Koh, E. B. Y., Pang, N. T. P., & Mat Saher, Z. (2023) · International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health · doi:10.3390/ijerph20054232 · Cited by 23 · see citing works
Gallego‐Alberto, L., Martínez‐Huertas, J. Á., Márquez‐González, M., Cabrera, I., Olazarán, J., & Losada‐Baltar, A. (2024) · Aging & Mental Health · doi:10.1080/13607863.2024.2430530 · Cited by 5 · see citing works
“This is coherent with studies showing that older male caregivers report higher levels of experiential avoidance (Houston et al., 2019; Losada et al., 2014).”
Jolliff, A. F., Fields, B., Boutilier, J. J., Dudek, A., Elliott, C., Zuraw, M., & Werner, N. E. (2024) · Dementia · doi:10.1177/14713012241270730 · Cited by 2 · see citing works
“In the present study, the prospect of running out of money may have been too troublesome for care partners to deeply consider; however, this avoidance precludes fi nding the answers that might build fi nancial planning con fi dence and alleviate distress (Houston et al., 2019).”
- Authors
- Houston, A. M., Harfmann, E., Olzmann, A., Brewster, G., & Ottmar, H.
- Affiliations
- Milwaukee VA Medical Center (US)
- Baltimore VA Medical Center (US)
- Emory University (US)
- Xavier University (US)
- ORCID
- Brewster, Glenna
- Venue
- Innovation in Aging
- Publisher
- Oxford University Press (OUP)
- Published
- 2019-11
- Volume
- 3
- Issue
- Supplement_1
- Pages
- S489-S489
- ISSN
- 2399-5300 (ISSN-L)
- PMC
- PMC6841058
- OpenAlex
- W2987663036
- Cited by
- 3
- References
- 0
- Citations by year
- 2024: 2 · 2023: 1
- Type
- conference abstract
- Language
- en
- Open access
- gold
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- Innovation in Aging (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Mindfulness and Compassion Interventions
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Psychiatry and Mental health › Dementia and Cognitive Impairment Research
- Health Sciences › Health Professions › Pharmacy › Nursing care and research
- Keywords
- experiential avoidance, dementia caregivers, informal caregivers, psychological flexibility, acceptance, cognitive fusion, mindfulness, caregiver burden, caregiver distress, self-rated health, gender differences, older caregivers
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