Highlights What is the primary question addressed by this study? The primary purpose of the study was to investigate which methods of communication during the COVID-19 pandemic were associated with more positive and less negative emotional experiences and perceptions of resident experiences of family members and friends of older adults in long-term care facilities in the United States. What is the main finding of this study? Using the phone more frequently was associated with less negative emotional experiences for participants, and using email more frequently was associated with more positive perceived resident experiences. Having letters delivered more frequently was associated with more participant and perceived resident negative emotions. What is the meaning of the findings? Connecting with family members and friends in long-term care facilities, especially via phone, may contribute to better emotional experiences for family members, friends, and long-term care residents.

Background: Family caregivers offer essential support to persons living with dementia (PLWD). Providing care for more than one family member or close other across adulthood is becoming increasingly common, yet little is known about the ways that caregiving experiences shape caregiver preparedness. The current study presents a grounded theory of future caregiver preparedness in former caregivers of PLWD. Method: A coding team (five coders and two auditors) used Consensual Qualitative Research and grounded theory techniques to analyze transcripts from 32 semi-structured interviews with midlife former caregivers of parents who died following advanced Alzheimer's disease and related dementias. Results: Qualitative analysis revealed two dimensions of future caregiver preparedness: caregiving confidence and caregiving insights. Narratives from caregiving experiences informed participants' descriptions of their future caregiver preparedness. Though some former caregivers described a positive (i.e., boosted or sustained) sense of caregiving confidence following care for their parents, others described a diminished (i.e., restricted or impeded) sense of confidence.Regardless of their confidence, all caregivers described specific caregiving insights related to one or more categories (i.e., caregiving self-conduct, care systems and resources, and relating with a care partner).Conclusions: Preparedness for future caregiving following recent care for a PLWD varies: For some, past experiences appear to offer cumulative advantages in anticipating future care roles, whereas for others, past experiences may contribute to apprehension towards, or rejection of, future care roles. Entering new

The early stages of dementia can be a time of stress and uncertainty for spouses, yet little attention is paid to positive experiences. It is important to understand whether there are individual differences in emotion regulation that impact the positive affect of the individual and the partner. Drawing from interdependence theory, we hypothesized that one spouse’s greater difficulty regulating emotions would be associated with their spouses lower positive emotions over time. We used self-report data from an intervention study with three assessment points (baseline, two weeks, and three months) of 45 older adult married couples (N=90) where one spouse has early-stage dementia. Both partners completed the Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale and the Positive and Negative Affect Scale. Results from the longitudinal actor partner interdependence model showed that when care partners were high in difficulty regulating emotions, their partner’s positive affect decreased (β = -0.343, p <.01), controlling for intervention arm and covariates.

Family caregivers for parents living with Alzheimer’s Disease or Related Dementias (ADRD) provide support through health decline, care planning, and death. Guided by the Consensual Qualitative Research method and grounded in a life story framework, this study examines recalled caregiving experiences and descriptions of personal end-of-life planning in 32 midlife former caregivers of parents with ADRD (range: 40-65; 44% male). Former caregivers often expressed appreciation for end-of-life planning but varied in their engagement in planning since their loss. Descriptions of hesitation with planning were rooted in salient challenges from caregiving experiences and reflected relational concerns (e.g., about burdening others with care needs), planning complexity (e.g., perceiving too many factors to account for), or mortality denial (e.g., aversion to thinking more about death). These caregiving experiences may clarify the value of end-of-life planning while, in some cases, impeding decision-making, leading to gaps between former caregivers’ planning intentions and engagement.

The broaden-and-build theory suggests that experiences of positive emotion may lead to enhanced utilization of adaptive coping strategies, and a decrease in maladaptive coping strategies (Gloria & Steinhardt, 2016). This relationship between positive emotion and adaptive coping has yet to be studied directly in a sample of adult child caregivers of a parent with memory loss. As part of a larger study investigating relationship dynamics between adult children and their parents with memory loss, adult children 18 years of age and older (n= 67) responded to self-report surveys and engaged in a 6 minute, video recorded, positive interaction session, playing “name that tune” with each other. The session was observationally coded by two coders for “enjoyment/enthusiasm/fun” (k= .516), “laughter” (k= .631), and “positive affect displayed towards partner” (k=.464), using a reliable and valid support-seeking and caregiving behavior coding system (Collins & Feeney, 2000). Spearman’s rank correlations between these behavior codes and the self-reported Brief COPE Inventory (BCI) scores suggested positive correlations between “laughter” and the emotional support subscale of the BCI (rs=.259, p= .034), and between “positive affect displayed towards partner” and the venting subscale of the BCI (rs= .256, p= .036). These findings suggest that the expression of positive emotions in the caregiving process might yield important psychological benefits to the caregiver, through increased utilization of specific coping mechanisms. More research in this area is needed to determine whether positive emotion expression is associated with the use of adaptive coping more so than maladaptive coping mechanisms in this population.