Julian Montoro-Rodriguez

The Role of Leisure Style in Maintaining the Health of Older Adults with Arthritis

This study explores the role of leisure style in relation to the perceived physical and mental health of older adults with self-reported arthritis. A model of successful aging was used as a conceptual framework to examine the relationship between the type of leisure styles and physical and mental health. Altogether, 464 adults over the age of 50 completed a questionnaire that assessed perceived physical and mental health, health history, pain severity (a proxy for arthritis severity), leisure style, social interaction with friends, and socio-demographics. Results indicated that type of leisure style had a significant role in the relationship between arthritis severity and perceived physical health. The main effect, leisure repertoire size was positively related to perceived physical health. That is, the broader the leisure repertoire, the higher the reported health. In terms of mental health, frequency of social interaction with friends was positively related to perceived mental health. Results are discussed in terms of leisure as a buffer for the negative effects of arthritis on health.

The Role of Conflict Resolution Styles on Nursing Staff Morale, Burnout, and Job Satisfaction in Long-Term Care

This study focuses on the ability of nursing staff to interact with residents in a way that affects positively on the nurses’ well-being and occupational satisfaction. It investigates the role of coping skills related to staff-resident interactions, in particular, the use of conflict resolution styles and their influence on the level of morale, burnout and job satisfaction of nursing professionals. A self-administered questionnaire was used to collect information from 161 direct care nursing staff. The authors used a multiple regression procedure to examine the influence of predictors on nursing staff outcomes. Multivariate analyses indicated that nurses’ psychological morale, occupational stress, and job satisfaction are influenced by conflict resolution styles, after controlling by individual characteristics, work demands, and work resources factors. The findings highlight the importance of considering personal coping abilities to foster positive staff-resident interactions and to increase nurses’ morale and job satisfaction.

The role of resources and appraisals in predicting burden among Latina and non-Hispanic white female caregivers: A test of an expanded socio-cultural model of stress and coping

Objectives: The goal of this study is to propose and evaluate an expanded socio-cultural model of stress and coping that examines the role of culturally situated factors, such as coping abilities and the caregivers self-efficacy beliefs, as mediators of outcomes among Latina and non-Hispanic white female caregivers. Methods: Using baseline data from 89 Latina and 96 non-Hispanic white female caregivers enrolled in an intervention study in the San Francisco area, exogenous and mediating factors were regressed on levels of burden among self-identified caregivers of older adults with Alzheimers disease or another form of dementia. Results: Results from structural equation modeling provided empirical evidence for a model in which the effects of ethnicity and other background variables are mediated through coping resources and appraisals of self-efficacy for managing care. Conclusion: This study adds to the existing literature that underscores the importance of evaluating the role of culturally mediated values for their impact on mental health outcomes. This influence is not only due to structural factors that reflect the disadvantaged minority status of ethnically diverse caregivers (e.g. socioeconomic status), but also to their coping resources and their appraisal of being able to meet caregiving demands, as shaped by their perceptions about caregiving. Future research is encouraged to explore the role of other culturally mediated factors that may affect mental health outcomes among caregivers of relatives with dementia.

Evaluating Social Integration and Psychological Outcomes for Older Adults Enrolled at a University Intergenerational Program

Abstract Intergenerational programs are proliferating. The basic assumption of such programs is that pairing older and younger people in various activities and contexts such as educational programs will produce positive developmental benefits for all participants. Educational programs appear to help adults to remain socially active and connected. The University of Valencia (Spain) initiated in 1999–2000 a “University Program for Seniors” for adults age 55 and over, entitled “Nau Gran.”The goal of this paper is to present baseline results on the benefits and impacts for older adults enrolled at the program during 2002. Results from a sample of 212 sophomore and junior older adult participants are presented. The questionnaire included socio-demographic information and items regarding health, social integration, and psychological outcomes. Results indicated that older adults attending courses at the University increased their level of social integration.

The Impact of Social Embarrassment on Caregiving Distress in a Multicultural Sample of Caregivers

The purpose of this study was to gauge the impact of social embarrassment on caregivers of Alzheimers patients. Two hypotheses were tested: First, social embarrassment adds a unique component of distress to caregivers of Alzheimers patients, controlling for other factors known to cause depression; second, the negativity of the embarrassment varies according to the caregivers race/ethnicity. Using data from the Alzheimers Disease Demonstration Grants to States program ( N = 1,183), the caregivers perceived depression was regressed on culturally situated variables and a set of covariates that included characteristics of both caregiver and care receiver. Results indicate that social embarrassment exerts a substantial effect on caregiver depression, but the effect does not vary meaningfully across cultural groups. In addition to social embarrassment, the health of the caregiver, the certainty of the Alzheimers diagnosis, and the caregivers perceived duty to care all uniquely contribute to the caregivers level of depression.

The Utility of the Family Empowerment Scale With Custodial Grandmothers.

The Family Empowerment Scale (FES) was developed specifically to assess empowerment in families with emotional disorders. Its relevance to custodial grandfamilies is reflected in the difficulties in grandchildren’s social, emotional, and behavioral functioning, wherein such difficulties may be explained via either reactions to changes in their family structure or in their responses to the newly formed family unit. Utilizing 27 items derived from the 34-item version of the FES, which had represented differential levels of empowerment (family, service system, community) as indexed by one’s attitudes, knowledge, and behavior, we explored the factor structure, internal consistency, construct, and convergent validity of the FES with grandparent caregivers. Three-hundred forty-three (M age = 58.45, SD = 8.22, n Caucasian = 152, n African American = 149, n Hispanic = 38) custodial grandmothers caring for grandchildren between ages 4 and 12 years completed the 27 FES items and various measures of their psychological well-being, grandchild psychological difficulties, emotional support, and parenting practices. Factor analysis revealed three factors that differed slightly from the originally proposed FES subscales: Parental Self-Efficacy/Self-Confidence, Service Activism, and Service Knowledge. Each of the factors was internally consistent, and derived factor scores were moderately interrelated, speaking to the question of convergent validity. The construct validity of these three factors was evidenced by meaningful patterns of statistically significant correlations with grandmothers’ psychological well-being, grandchild psychological difficulties, emotional support, and parenting practices. These factor scores were independent of grandmother age, health, and education. These findings suggest the newly identified FES factors to be valuable in understanding empowerment among grandmother caregivers.

Dispositional hope and life satisfaction among older adults attending lifelong learning programs

BACKGROUND The aim of this study is to explore the indirect effects of dispositional hope in the life satisfaction of older adults attending a lifelong learning program at the University of Valencia, Spain. We examine the mediating impact of dispositional hope regarding its ability to impact life satisfaction while considering affective and confidant social support, perceived health and leisure activities, consciousness and spirituality as predictors. METHODS Analysis were based on survey data (response rate 77.4%) provided by 737 adults 55 years old or more (Mean age=65.41, SD=6.60; 69% woman). A structural model with latent variables was specified and estimated in Mplus. RESULTS The results show the ability of just a few variables to sum up a reasonable model to apply to successful aging population. All these variables are correlated and significantly predict hope with the exception of health. The model additionally includes significant positive indirect effects from spirituality, affective support and consciousness on satisfaction. The model has a good fit in terms of both the measurement and structural model. Regarding predictive power, these comprehensive four main areas of successful aging account for 42% of hope and finally for one third of the life satisfaction variance. CONCLUSIONS Results support the mediating role of dispositional hope on the life satisfaction among older adults attending lifelong learning programs. These findings also support the MacArthur model of successful aging adapted to older adults with high levels of functional, social and cognitive ability. Dispositional hope, perceived health, and social support were the strongest predictors of satisfaction with life.

A randomized clinical trial of interventions for improving well-being in custodial grandfamilies.

Despite the rising cultural phenomenon of grandparents parenting grandchildren on a full-time basis due to problems within the birth parent generation, intervention studies with these families have been scarce, methodologically flawed, and without conceptual underpinnings. We conducted a randomized clinical trial (RCT) with 343 custodial grandmothers recruited from across 4 states to compare the effectiveness of behavioral parent training (BPT), cognitive–behavioral therapy (CBT), and information-only control (IOC) conditions at lowering grandmothers’ psychological distress, improving their parenting practices, and reducing the internalizing and externalizing difficulties of target grandchildren between ages 4 and 12. These outcomes were derived conceptually from the family stress model and modeled as latent constructs with multiple indicators. Each RCT condition was fully manualized and delivered across 10 sessions within groups led jointly by trained professionals and peer facilitators in community settings. Multidomain second-order latent difference score models were performed on a full intent-to-treat basis to compare the 3 RCT conditions on changes in the above outcomes from baseline to postintervention and from baseline to 6 months postintervention. In general, while CBT and BPT interventions were both superior to IOC at both times of measurement on most outcomes, they differed little from each other. Effect sizes were generally in the moderate to large range and similar to those found in prior studies of BPT and CBT with traditional birth parents. We conclude from this research that evidence-based interventions focusing on appropriate skill development and behavioral change can yield positive outcomes within custodial grandfamilies.

The Family Stress Model as it Applies to Custodial Grandfamilies: A Cross Validation

There is scant research on how the parenting practices of custodial grandmothers affect the psychological adjustment of grandchildren in their care. Yet, the findings from a handful of prior studies suggest the relevance of the Family Stress Model (FSM) to these caregivers. The present study further tested the FSM with baseline data from 343 custodial grandmothers (Mage = 58.5 years) enrolled in a clinical trial of the efficacy of interventions for improving the well-being of their families. Not only was this “help-seeking” sample atypical of prior FSM studies, but also unique to the present study was our addition of multiple parenting practices, self-reported and clinical ratings of grandmothers’ distress, and reports of grandchildren’s internalizing and externalizing difficulties from grandchildren and grandmothers. Mplus 7.31 was used to test a model where the effect of grandmother distress on grandchildren’s internalizing and externalizing difficulties was hypothesized to be indirect through five distinct parenting practices. The findings regarding both the measurement and structural models fit the observed data well, and invariance was largely found across grandchildren’s gender and age (4–7 vs. 8–12). Although grandchildren’s self-reported internalizing and externalizing difficulties were unrelated to grandmothers’ distress and parenting practices, the grandmothers’ reports of these outcomes were generally related to their own distress and parenting practices as hypothesized. However, considerable variation was found across the five parenting practices in terms of their relationships to the other FSM constructs. We conclude that data from multiple informants and measures of assorted parenting practices are essential to future research and practice.