Alzheimer's Disease and Marriage

Abstract

Wright, Lore K. (1993). Alzheimer's Disease and Marriage. Newbury Park, CA: Sage. 147 pp. Hardcover ISBN 0-8039-4521-3, price $34.00; paper ISBN 0-8039-4522-1, price $15.95. Marriage in the later years is a topic that is relevant family life educators, researchers, and family interventionists, including therapists and policymakers. Grounded in adult developmental theory, Alzheimer's Disease and Marriage reports data from healthy and Alzheimer's-afflicted marriages. This study provides an initial glimpse at the dynamics of marriage in the later years as well as a number of strategies for assessment and intervention with older couples. This book is unique in several ways. First, it focuses on marital relationships of older persons. Although few scholars would question the saliency of marriage in later life, little research has been specifically directed toward the examination of marital partners' perceptions of household responsibilities, tension, companionship, affection and sexuality and commitment (p. 1). Second, data are reported from a small, nonrandom, purposive sample of spouses in which both are relatively healthy (n = 17) and spouses in which one is afflicted with Alzheimer's disease and the other is the primary caregiver (n = 30). Data on the dynamics of marriage are rare from healthy couples and still rarer from Alzheimer's-afflicted couples. Third, information is gathered and examined from the perspectives of both the caregiver and care receiver within the Alzheimer's-afflicted marriages. While there is an abundance of research on caregivers' perceptions, little is known about the views of care receivers, especially those afflicted with Alzheimer's. As identified at the beginning of the book, the audiences include researchers, students, and (p. 1). The primary goal is to provide assessment strategies and intervention guidelines for situations where caregiver and afflicted spouse reside together in the community (p. 1). After discussing general information about Alzheimer's disease and briefly outlining Riegel's adult developmental theory, characteristics of the sample are presented. An understanding of adult developmental theory is useful because the assumptions of this theory are used interpret the data presented in each chapter. Thus, clinicians, researchers, students, and caregivers are not simply presented data, they also receive an interpretation of the data based on the assumptions of adult developmental theory. For those already familiar with this approach, the interpretations are easily understood, but for the unfamiliar, an in-depth discussion of the theoretical framework undergirding this research is necessary. Each chapter concludes with an Assessment Strategies and Intervention Guidelines section. This section provides specific information that is useful family life educators and clinicians. Creatively, measures developed for research (e.g., Spanier's Dyadic Adjustment Scale) are suggested as assessment tools for intervention. Bridging research and practice through assessment provides a unique linkage for students as well as for researchers and clinicians. …