A - 55 Boosting Positive Emotion in Caregivers: Moderators of a Positive Psychological Intervention.

Abstract

There are numerous negative health effects associated with dementia caregiving, including increased stress and depression. Positive emotion interventions could improve health and psychological outcomes for caregivers. The present study was a secondary analysis of data from the Life Enhancing Activities for Family Caregivers (LEAF) trial (R01NR014435). LEAF is an evidence-based intervention designed to increase positive emotion in caregivers. Using multiple linear regression, data from the LEAF trial (n = 170 community-dwelling caregivers) were examined to identify which caregiver characteristics moderated LEAF outcomes (positive emotion, negative emotion, positive aspects of caregiving) over time. Length of time caregiving significantly moderated the effect of positive emotion from baseline to post-intervention, such that longer-term caregivers in the LEAF intervention group experienced greater increases in positive emotion compared to longer-term caregivers in the emotion-reporting waitlist control group (B = 0.119, t = 2.1, p < 0.05). Moreover, gender moderated positive emotion, such that males in the intervention group and females in the waitlist control group experienced greater increases in positive emotion over time than males in the waitlist control group and females in the intervention group, respectively (R2 = 0.06, F[3, 139] = [2.75], p = <0.05). No other effects were found. Results suggest that length of time caregiving and gender play an important role in the extent to which dementia caregivers benefit from positive emotion interventions. This study assists in identifying caregivers for whom positive emotion interventions work best, suggests ways that the intervention should be tailored to match caregiver characteristics, and targets outcomes most impacted according to caregivers' individual differences.