This study assessed impact of Alzheimer's patients' aggressive behavior (AD aggression) on caregiver coping strategies (task-, emotion-, and avoidance-focused) and caregiver resilience, and examined whether coping strategy moderated the AD aggression-caregiver resilience relationship. Informal caregivers across Louisiana (N = 419) completed surveys with measures of demographics, AD aggression, caregiver coping strategies, and caregiver resilience. Task-focused coping positively related to resilience. Aggression negatively predicted caregiver resilience. Emotion- and avoidance-focused coping strategies separately interacted with aggression and increased its negative relationship to caregiver resilience. Task-focused coping showed no moderation. Implications for social work professionals are discussed.

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The purpose of this study was to evaluate a popular measure of Alzheimer's disease (AD) memory and behavior problems and to determine whether its aggressive behavior items coalesced empirically as a subscale to form a psychometrically viable AD aggression measure for clinicians. Data from self-report questionnaires were examined from 419 informal AD caregivers in the southern United States. Principal axis factoring revealed a unidimensional solution with robust item loadings on the single factor. Three forms of reliability analysis indicated moderately strong internal consistency on this proposed measure. Evidence of convergent validity analysis was suggested via the measure's significant correlations to theoretically linked constructs. The proposed measure emerged as a reliable and valid tool for health care practitioners for the appraisal of problematic AD aggression behaviors from the caregiver perspective.

Natural and manmade emergencies have become more frequent over the past 20 years and will continue to pose serious risks to public health and safety. Older adults are more adversely affected by—and less prepared for—emergencies than younger adults. However, little is known about the risk factors impeding emergency preparedness among older adults. This study uses the ecological systems approach to explore factors associated with emergency preparedness and how those factors influence adults 60 and older. The study analyzed cross-sectional data taken from 690 community-dwelling older adults who participated in Wave 5 of the National Poll on Healthy Aging. The sample was broken down into the following two groups for comparison: individuals aged 60–69 (n = 383) and individuals 70 or above (n = 307). The self-reported measures of sociodemographic characteristics, physical health, mental health, and previous experience of a disaster were utilized via regression analysis to predict emergency preparedness. Emergency preparedness was assessed using X dichotomous questions (60-69: M = X; 70+: M = X). The results revealed that living alone and having a Hispanic background were negatively associated with emergency preparedness among those aged 60–69, while mental health status was positively associated with emergency preparedness among those aged 70+. Previous experience of a disaster positively impacted emergency preparedness among the sample. Implications for policy and practice focus on shifting the perspective of the disproportional risks for older adults around emergencies to one that values and supports older adults’ strengths and insights.