VA New York Harbor Healthcare System and New York University, New York, NY, USA.
Attach Hum Dev. 2013;15(3):332-48. doi: 10.1080/14616734.2013.782658. Epub 2013 Apr 14.
This study explores links between adults' attachment representations and the task of caring for elderly parents with dementia. Participants were 87 adults serving as primary caregivers of a parent or parent-in-law with dementia. Waters and Waters' ( 2006 ) Attachment Script Assessment was adapted to assess script-like attachment representation in the context of caring for their elderly parent. The quality of adult-elderly parent interactions was assessed using the Level of Expressed Emotions Scale (Cole & Kazarian, 1988 ) and self-report measures of caregivers' perception of caregiving as difficult. Caregivers' secure base script knowledge predicted lower levels of negative expressed emotion. This effect was moderated by the extent to which participants experienced caring for elderly parents as difficult. Attachment representations played a greater role in caregiving when caregiving tasks were perceived as more difficult. These results support the hypothesis that attachment representations influence the quality of care that adults provide their elderly parents. Clinical implications are discussed.
本研究探讨了成年人依恋表现与照顾患有痴呆症的老年父母任务之间的联系。参与者是 87 名作为父母或公婆的主要照顾者的成年人。Waters 和 Waters（2006）的依恋脚本评估被改编为评估在照顾他们的老年父母的背景下的类似脚本的依恋表现。使用表达情绪量表（Cole & Kazarian，1988）和照顾者对照顾困难的自我报告评估来评估成人与老年父母之间的互动质量。照顾者的安全基地脚本知识预测了较低水平的负面表达情绪。这种影响受到参与者对照顾老年父母困难程度的调节。当照顾任务被认为更困难时，依恋表现对照顾的质量起着更大的作用。这些结果支持了这样一种假设，即依恋表现影响成年人对其老年父母提供的照顾质量。讨论了临床意义。
