School of Communication Studies, Kent State University , Kent, Ohio, USA.
J Elder Abuse Negl. 2020 Jun;32(3):235-258. doi: 10.1080/08946566.2020.1741054. Epub 2020 Mar 17.
The goal of the current study was to examine the roles of communication neglect and caregiver traits (i.e., anger and hostility) in explaining caregivers' tendency to engage in abusive behaviors - specifically, whether such tendency is likely to occur in situations where caregivers perceive older care receivers displaying cognitive impairment or problem behaviors. Two hundred fifty-five informal caregivers completed an online questionnaire via Qualtrics. Treating communication neglect as the mediator, and caregiver anger and hostility as moderators, the results suggested that caregivers who perceived their older care receivers displaying problem behaviors were more likely to engage in communication neglect, which then led to psychological abuse. Moreover, the joint effects of communication neglect and caregiver anger and hostility intensified caregivers' likelihood to commit psychological abuse. These findings provide initial evidence to further investigate the importance of communication neglect and dysfunctional behaviors such as anger and hostility in explaining psychological abuse in informal caregiving for older adults.
本研究旨在探讨沟通忽视和照护者特质（即愤怒和敌意）在解释照护者虐待行为倾向中的作用——特别是这种倾向是否可能出现在照护者认为老年被照护者表现出认知障碍或行为问题的情况下。255 名非正式照护者通过 Qualtrics 在线完成了一份问卷。研究结果表明，将沟通忽视视为中介，将照护者的愤怒和敌意视为调节因素，那些认为自己的老年被照护者表现出行为问题的照护者更有可能出现沟通忽视，从而导致心理虐待。此外，沟通忽视和照护者愤怒和敌意的共同作用加剧了照护者实施心理虐待的可能性。这些发现为进一步研究沟通忽视以及愤怒和敌意等功能失调行为在解释老年人非正式照护中的心理虐待的重要性提供了初步证据。
