American Psychological Association

Eldercare can pose significant challenges for both employees and organizations wherein supervisors serve as critical linchpins. To better inform practitioners on how to assist employees with eldercare responsibilities, we investigated important work outcomes of eldercare-supportive supervision (ESS), a specific form of family-supportive supervision.

Restrictions related to the 2019 novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pose unique and significant challenges for community-dwelling caregivers and people with dementia, including disrupted routines, a lack of structure, decreased access to respite care, and new or worsening safety issues related to interpersonal violence and hygiene. In addition to identifying issues confronting caregivers, the authors also describe possible ways to address some of these pressing concerns.

Purpose/objective: To examine the influence of traumatic brain injury (TBI) severity on the health-related quality of life of caregivers providing care to service members/veterans (SMV) following a TBI. Research Method/Design: Thirty caregivers (90.0% female; 70.0% spouse; age: M = 39.5 years, SD = 10.7) of SMVs who sustained a mild, moderate, severe, or penetrating TBI were recruited from Walter Reed National Military Medical Center and via community outreach to participate in one of six focus groups.

Objective: Over 20% of patients with heart failure (HF) experience clinical depression, which is associated with higher rates of mortality, morbidity, and hospitalization. Support from family members or friends (whom we refer to as care partners [CPs]) can lower the risk of these outcomes. We examined whether HF patients with depression received assistance from CPs living outside of their homes. Further, we examined whether patient depression was associated with support-related strain among out-of-home CPs.

Purpose/objective: This commentary demonstrates the need for culturally adapted interventions to support informal caregivers (care partners) of adults with traumatic brain injuries (TBI), proposes and supports an evidence-based intervention, Problem-Solving Training (PST), uniquely suitable for cultural adaptation for Latinx care partners, and describes several considerations and concrete suggestions for initial cultural adaption of PST for Latinx care partners of adults with TBI.; Results: Caregiving among Latinxs is rooted in cultural values and norms tha

Consistent with the long history within Psychology and Aging of publishing high impact articles on family caregiving, the current Special Section includes 5 articles that provide important advances, in knowledge and in methodological sophistication, to the study of cognitive difficulty, impairment and family caregiving. One study used daily diary data over 14 days to conduct microlongitudinal analyses of the prospective impact of everyday memory failures on negative affect and marital interactions in older couples.

Having 2 or more relatives involved in the informal care of people with dementia is frequent worldwide. There are, however, few comparisons of primary and secondary caregivers and even fewer of those who are caring for the same person. Our study aimed to contrast these 2 experiences of caregiving. We compared 2 related samples of 61 primary and 61 secondary family caregivers of the same persons with dementia in a nonrandomized cross-sectional study.

Although dependency in its various forms has been widely studied, most investigations examine manifestations of dependency within individuals. Scrutiny of the literature reveals that synergistic dependencies—situations wherein both members of a dyad manifest excessive dependency of one form or another—play a role in some forms of partner and elder abuse. High levels of interpersonal or economic dependency in a woman coupled with high levels of interpersonal dependency in her male partner increase the likelihood of partner abuse.

Objective: To test the effects of Life Enhancing Activities for Family Caregivers (LEAF), a 6-week positive emotion regulation intervention, on outcomes of positive emotion, depression, anxiety, and physical health as measured by the Patient-Reported Outcomes Measurement Information System® (PROMIS®). Method: A randomized controlled trial (N 170) comparing LEAF (N 86) to an emotion reporting/waitlist condition (N 84) in dementia caregivers. LEAF was individually delivered online by trained facilitators.

Although job stress models suggest that changing the work social environment to increase job resources improves psychological health, many intervention studies have weak designs and overlook influences of family caregiving demands. We tested the effects of an organizational intervention designed to increase supervisor social support for work and nonwork roles, and job control in a results-oriented work environment on the stress and psychological distress of health care employees who care for the elderly, while simultaneously considering their own family caregiving responsibilities.