Positive Affect in Dementia Care Dyads

Saturday, November 5, 2022

5:30 PM – 7:00 PM ET

Location: 243 CC

CE: 1.5

Chair(s)

Joan Monin, PhD

Associate Professor
Social and Behavioral Sciences
Yale School of Public Health
New Haven, Connecticut, United States

Discussant(s)

Claudia Haase, PhD

Associate Professor
Human Development and Social Policy
Northwestern University
Evanston, Illinois, United States

Individual Symposium Abstract First Author(s)

Joan Monin, PhD

Associate Professor
Social and Behavioral Sciences
Yale School of Public Health
New Haven, Connecticut, United States
Amanda Piechota, BA

Research Assistant
Social and Behavioral Sciences
Yale School of Public Health
New Haven, Connecticut, United States
Casey Brown, PhD

Assistant Professor
Psychology
Georgetown University
Berkeley, California, United States
KC

Kuan-Hua Chen, PhD

Postdoc Fellow
Psychology
University of California, Berkeley
Berkeley, California, United States

Positive affect is important for physical health, well-being, and relationships. Yet, most studies of dementia care dyads have focused on negative outcomes, such as depression and caregiver burden. We present findings from studies that address this important research gap. The first two speakers present findings from actor partner interdependence models using secondary data from a randomized controlled trial of persons with early-stage dementia (PWD) and their spouses. Specifically, Dr. Monin will show that actor quality of life is significantly related to positive affect cross-sectionally, controlling for functional status of each partner and PWD behavioral symptoms. Ms. Piechota will present longitudinal findings demonstrating that when spouses were high in difficulty regulating emotions, the PWD’s positive affect decreased over three months, controlling for intervention arm and covariates. The second two speakers will present findings from two different studies of persons living with behavioral-variant frontotemporal dementia (bvFTD), Alzheimer’s disease (AD), and controls that engaged in laboratory conflict discussions. Dr. Brown will show that caregivers of individuals with bvFTD reported greater decreases in positive emotion across the discussion relative to caregivers of individuals with AD and language variants. She will also discuss how caregivers who reported greater decreases in positive emotion had higher levels of depressive symptoms, controlling for their partner’s diagnosis and level of cognitive impairment. Finally, Dr. Chen will provide evidence that bvFTD caregivers had lower emotional well-being according to the SF-36 than AD caregivers and controls, and this effect was fully mediated by bvFTD caregivers' lower positive emotional connections.

Learning Objectives:

After attending this session, participants will be able to describe the antecedents and consequences of positive affect in dementia care dyads.
After attending this session, participants will be able to define actor and partner effects in dyadic research.
After attending this session, participants will be able to describe differences between the emotional experiences of dementia care dyads coping with Alzheimers Disease and behavioral variant frontotemporal dementia.

Presentations:

5:30 PM – 7:00 PM ET

Associations Between Health and Positive Affect in Spousal Dementia Care Dyads
Individual Symposium Abstract First Author: Joan K. Monin, PhD – Yale School of Public Health
5:30 PM – 7:00 PM ET

Emotion Regulation and Positive Affect in Spousal Dementia Care Dyads
Individual Symposium Abstract First Author: Amanda Piechota, BA – Yale School of Public Health
5:30 PM – 7:00 PM ET

Informal Dementia Caregivers' Emotional Experiences During Conflict and Depressive Symptoms
Individual Symposium Abstract First Author: Casey L. Brown, PhD – Georgetown University
5:30 PM – 7:00 PM ET

Positive Emotional Connection and Caregiver Well-Being in Behavioral-Variant Frontotemporal Dementia
Individual Symposium Abstract First Author: Kuan-Hua Chen, PhD – University of California, Berkeley