Midlife Care Givers: Effectiveness of a Psychoeducational Intervention for Midlife Adults With Parent‐Care Responsibilities

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to develop, implement, and evaluate a psychoeducational group intervention that addressed the needs of adult children caring for aging parents. The intervention consisted of four 2‐hour sessions and included 70 care givers, 54 to 72 years of age, who were currently caring for a parent 60 years of age or older. A delayed‐treatment, control‐group design with follow‐up after a 4‐week interval was used to study three primary variables identified through an extensive literature review as essential for care givers. These included knowledge, care giver burden, and skill development. Skill development did not change following participation, nor did care giver burden variables measured. Significant increases were found at the .05 level for knowledge, overall coping resources, and self disclosure following group participation.

Hope‐Focused and Forgiveness‐Based Group Interventions to Promote Marital Enrichment

“…Psychoeducational groups have historically been a component of graduate training for mental health professionals (Wilson, Coyne, & Ward, 1994). Across time, the topics that have been addressed in psychoeducational groups have been wide-ranging, including promoting marriages (Kaiser, Hahlweg, Fehm-Wolfsdorf, & Groth, 1998;Long, Angera, Carter, Nakamoto, & Kalso, 1999;Zimpfer, 1990), supporting families (Hunter, Hoffnung, & Ferholt, 1988), training parents (Cwiakala & Mordock, 1996;Kiselica, Rotzien, & Doms, 1994), supporting adolescents (Kiselica et al, 1994;Rice & Meyer, 1994;Yoshikawa, 1994), caretaking for elderly family members (Schwiebert & Myers, 1994), coping with psychological disorders (Fristad, Gavazzi, Centolella, & Soldano, 1996;Twoey, 1997), promoting forgiveness (McCullough & Worthington, 1994, 1995Worthington, Sandage, & Berry, 2000), and coping with substance abuse problems (Stanton & Shadish, 1997).…”

Expressed Information and Resource Needs of Filial Caregivers Reporting Recent Experiences of Crisis

“…For example, research shows that although middle-aged adult children express needs for group support and counseling, they are more likely to attend an educational group than a counseling group (Schwiebert & Myers, 1994). Thus, a time-limited educative supportive group approach to counseling might be a more fruitful method of counseling, particularly in situations of high administrative staff involvement and consistent-high attendance (Dilworth-Anderson, 1987;Schultz, Schultz, & Smymios, 1994).…”

“…Addressed in particular are the perceived needs of those reporting recent experiences of crisis, the rationale being that this information might provide guidance regarding the socialization of adult children into the role of lial caregiver (Blenkner, 1965;Clark & Standard, 1997). Addressing the connection between experiences of crisis and resources needed for parent care also might provide a more solid foundation on which to build future programs of experiential adult education for caregivers (Ames & Youatt, 1994;Schwiebert & Myers, 1994). The expectation is that such programs might lead to more effective parent care and lial maturity of adult children.…”

Evidence‐Based Effective Practices With Older Adults

“…Professional counselors were included in only one study. Schwiebert and Myers (1994), operating from a counseling perspective, developed a psychoeducational support group intervention for midlife caregivers with parentcare responsibilities. They randomly assigned 51 White caregivers to a treatment or a delayed-treatment control group consisting of four 2-hour sessions.…”

“…Life review therapy. Because life review is "normal" in later life and necessary for the achievement of ego integrity, life review has emerged as the treatment of choice in virtually all settings in which older adults congregate for voluntary reasons or through institutional or group-living placements (Schwiebert & Myers, 1994). Birren and Cochran (2001) reported successful results from 25 years of research using autobiography groups as a form of structured life review, noting that the sharing of stories in group settings has positive therapeutic benefits for older adults.…”