Perspective-Taking Interventions for Intergenerational Caregivers of Alzheimer’s Diseases: A Randomized Controlled Trial

Abstract

Purpose: The present study examined the effects of perspective-taking (PT) intervention in the context of intergenerational caregiving. Method: Seventy-two adult child caregivers of persons living with Alzheimer’s disease (AD) were randomized into two 8-week interventions: (1) connecting through caregiving (CTC: 37 participants) with intergenerational PT reappraisals and (2) basic skill building (BSB: 35 participants). The CTC intervention focused on PT reappraisals aiming to promote balance between self-care and caring of others: (1) connecting with self through enhancing self-awareness, (2) connecting with the care recipient through empathetic understanding, and (3) connecting with others who can help. Results: As compared to the BSB group, the CTC group reported significantly higher increase in the level of life satisfaction and also greater reductions in depressive symptoms and burden. PT was found to mediate between intervention effects and change in life satisfaction. Discussion: The results provided evidence for the efficacy of the CTC program in enhancing the well-being of AD caregivers.

Sense of Community Mediating Between Age-Friendly Characteristics and Life Satisfaction of Community-Dwelling Older Adults

“…Au et al (2019b) have found significant associations between generative behavior and positive emotions in older adults across three countries. Thus, aging-in-place has implications for life satisfaction not only for the older adults but also for the next generation (Au et al, 2019a;Oswald et al, 2011). The concept of the sense of community can provide a way of capturing the mechanism of change involved in building a more age-friendly community.…”

Intergenerational Commensality: A Critical Discussion on Non-Familial Age Groups Eating Together

“…Work by Haapala et al [15] on rural community services has indicated that both older customers and younger assistants might need education on each other's life-course priorities for the improved delivery of homebased support. Similarly, Au et al [16] have shown how supporting young carers through education on how to consider the perspective of the other (care recipient) can be beneficial to both parties. From the perspective of generational relations, commensal interaction around meals may provide a linking narrative across public and private spheres with the possibility of a space that allows for sharing, complementarity, and mutual learning.…”

“…The degree to which people become aware of this and their willingness to positively encounter the ageother indicates their degree of generational intelligence. Empirical work using generational intelligence has been undertaken by Haapala et al [15], Au et al [16] and Dow et al [3] to examine intergenerational relations in social work, education, and community settings. According to this model, any person or set of social arrangements can contain high or low degrees of generational intelligence.…”

“…By engaging participants in the generational intelligence process of considering theirs and the others' generational position and priorities ahead of the interaction, and in the post-intervention interviews, we were also able to better assess the outcomes. In a further study on nurse education in community settings in Hong Kong, in which the training and the design of pre-post questionnaires were based on the generational intelligence model, the outcomes demonstrated an increase in empathic understanding between health professionals and older care recipients [16]. Our research on age-related encounters in public and private urban settings examined naturally occurring generational attitudes between disadvantaged youth and older adults in Melbourne, Australia.…”

The impact of generational intelligence on intergenerational family relations and quality of life in Israeli society during Covid-19 pandemic?

“…Using the Generational Intelligence framework, Dow et al, 7 found that positive intergenerational relations occurred much more easily in private, rather than in public spaces and that the public domain required forms of activation, such as those described by Kaplan et al, 8 Haapala et al, 9 study of rural community services, indicated that both older customers and younger assistants might need education on each other's life-course priorities to increase empathy in the improved delivery of home-based support. Similarly, Au et al, 10 have shown how supporting younger careers through education on how to take account of the perspective of the age-other (care-recipient), using a Generational Intelligence framework, can be beneficial to both parties.…”