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Biomedical subjects

N L Resch

Publications and source records attributed to N L Resch.

5 recordsLinked to original sources

Mental health of caregiving spouses: coping as mediator, moderator, or main effect?

Coping strategies used by 315 persons providing care to a spouse diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease were characterized as either emotion-focused (wishfulness, acceptance, intrapsychic) or problem-focused (instrumental). Models in which coping strategies were postulated as having mediator, moderator, and independent main effects were tested using multiple indexes of mental health. Wishfulness and intrapsychic strategies mediated the relationship between degree of stress and CES-D, Anxiety, and Depression. Wishfulness had a direct effect on Obsessive-Compulsive, Somatization, and Interpersonal Sensitivity; intrapsychic strategies had a direct effect on Obsessive-Compulsive, Somatization, and Interpersonal Sensitivity; and instrumental strategies had a direct effect on Positive Affect. Hierarchical regression analyses indicated that stressors and coping strategies explained between 12% and 40% of the variance on mental health indexes.

Adaptation, Psychological

Aberrant behaviors and Alzheimer's disease: mental health effects on spouse caregivers.

The relationships between well-being of 262 caregivers of Alzheimer's disease patients and forgetful, asocial, and disoriented behaviors on the part of the impaired spouse were examined using three one-way MANOVAs. Results indicate that asocial and disoriented behaviors have linear relationships with levels of burden, specific mental health problems attributed to caregiving, and the extent to which caregivers sacrificed aspects of their social life. Asocial behaviors were also linearly related to overall level of caregiver depression. Forgetful behaviors, on the other hand, have relationships with burden, specific mental health problems attributed to caregiving, and social change that are nonlinear. Data are interpreted in terms of the predictable course of Alzheimer's disease and associated role expectations.

Alzheimer Disease

Husbands and wives as caregivers: antecedents of depression and burden.

Contrasting predictors of depression among 101 men and 214 women providing care to spouses suffering from Alzheimer's Disease indicated that the sole predictor for husbands was ill health, whereas for wives less emotional investment was also predictive. While there were no significant predictors for burden among husbands, for wives, burden was associated with poorer health, less emotional investment, greater spouse impairment, and provision of more assistance with tasks.

Alzheimer Disease

Psychometric assessment of the Multidimensional Observation Scale for Elderly Subjects (MOSES).

The factor structure of the MOSES proposed by Helmes et al. (1987) was tested using both exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis procedures. Results indicated that although the number of factors suggested was appropriate, the manifest variables proposed for each latent factor were not stable. A modified 5-factor model using 24 of the original 40 variables was proposed and tested. Confirmation of the modified model suggests factorial invariance across two independent samples. Internal consistency for the five scales measured by coefficient alphas ranged from 0.62 to 0.92. Difficulties in scoring MOSES items are discussed, and solutions offered for alleviating the problems. The 5-factor MOSES model is suggested as a useful research and clinical tool.

Aged