Dr. Jerome Kaplan Outstanding Graduate Paper
Paper title: Predicting Depression, Anxiety and Burden: Self-Compassion, Self-Esteem, and Coping in Caregivers of Individuals with Dementia
Few studies have focused specifically on the application of mindfulness and compassion interventions in caregivers and even fewer have targeted caregivers of IWDs. The findings of this study provide additional rationale for the inclusion of self-compassion within interventions focused on improving the coping and managing skills of caregivers of IWDs. In this study, self-compassion was the common predictor of depression, anxiety, and burden. Combined with the role of coping strategies, particularly dysfunctional coping and emotion-focused coping in mediation models, the findings of this study suggest that self-compassion is an important target construct in caregivers of IWDs. Concise and easy to digest interventions are crucial for busy and stressed caregivers for IWDs. Additional research to confirm the findings of this study are needed, but these results suggest that self-compassion is also a useful potential target for interventions developed specifically for caregivers of IWDs.
Claire E. Grant, MA
Cleveland State University