Does Personal Goal Pursuit Alleviate Family Caregiver Stress?

Abstract Family caregivers may experience reduced stress by maintaining their sense of self throughout their time in a caregiving role. Working towards personal goals is helpful for maintaining a sense of self, but pursuing one’s own goals amidst caregiving responsibilities may be challenging. In this study, we analyze the processes by which caregivers pursue their own personal goals – and how those processes impact daily stress – in an effort to develop a deeper understanding of goal-pursuit as a potential caregiver stress-reducing strategy. We utilized daily data from spousal (N=256 days) and adult-child (N=400 days) caregivers who participated in the PULSE (Personal Understandings of Life and Social Experiences) Project, a 100-day microlongitudinal study on goal pursuit amongst people 50 and older (Hooker et al., 2013). In daily surveys, caregivers reported progress made towards a personally-identified health and social goal, along with a 4-item measure of daily stress. We ran multi-level models to assess how daily goal progress was associated with same-day stress. Spousal caregivers’ daily stress was lower on days when their health goal (Estimate = -1.07, SE = 0.20, p<.0001) and social goal (Estimate = -0.97, SE = 0.15, p<.0001) progress was higher. Similarly, adult-child caregivers’ daily stress was lower on days when their health goal (Estimate = -0.67, SE = 0.19, p<.001) and social goal (Estimate = -0.52, SE 0.24, p=0.03) progress was higher. Results support the hypothesis that maintaining personally-meaningful goals can alleviate caregiver stress, and is a promising tool for caregiver health promotion.

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Women’s Self-Relevant Goal Pursuit in the Presence of Physical Pain: An Intraindividual Variability Approach

The Journals of Gerontology Series B ◽

10.1093/geronb/gbaa151 ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

Shelbie G Turner ◽

Karen Hooker ◽

Robert S Stawski

Keyword(s):

Sense Of Self ◽

Goal Pursuit ◽

Well Being ◽

Intraindividual Variability ◽

Personal Goals ◽

Physical Pain ◽

Goal Progress ◽

Identity Processes ◽

Health Goal ◽

Age Related

Abstract Objectives Pursuing personal goals that are relevant to one’s sense of self is important for adjusting to age-related changes. Experiences of physical pain, however, are thought to threaten both people’s sense of self and their pursuit of personal goals. Although a majority of older women experience physical pain, little is known about their day-to-day regulation of their self-relevant goals in the presence of physical pain. The objectives of this study were to explore associations between physical pain and health goal pursuit on a daily basis for women who identified health as a part of their possible selves. Methods We took an intraindividual variability approach to analyze whether there were within- and between-person differences in associations between daily pain and daily health goal progress among 62 women who provided data over the course of 100 days, yielding 4,150 occasions of data. Results At the between-person level, women with higher pain on average had lower health goal pursuit on average. At the within-person level, days of higher-than-average pain were associated with lower same-day health goal progress. Discussion Our results suggest that pain interrupts regulation of a self-relevant goal at a within-person—not just between-person—daily level. Future work should consider how these daily, within-person, disruptions affect broader identity processes and overall well-being.

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Less Power, Greater Conflict

Social Psychology ◽

10.1027/1864-9335/a000327 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 49 (1) ◽

pp. 47-62 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Petra C. Schmid

Keyword(s):

Low Power ◽

High Power ◽

Goal Pursuit ◽

Goal Conflict ◽

Personal Goals ◽

Multiple Goals ◽

Objective Performance ◽

The Future ◽

The Way

Abstract. Power facilitates goal pursuit, but how does power affect the way people respond to conflict between their multiple goals? Our results showed that higher trait power was associated with reduced experience of conflict in scenarios describing multiple goals (Study 1) and between personal goals (Study 2). Moreover, manipulated low power increased individuals’ experience of goal conflict relative to high power and a control condition (Studies 3 and 4), with the consequence that they planned to invest less into the pursuit of their goals in the future. With its focus on multiple goals and individuals’ experiences during goal pursuit rather than objective performance, the present research uses new angles to examine power effects on goal pursuit.

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Health goals among American adults: Prevalence, characteristics, and barriers

Journal of Health Psychology ◽

10.1177/1359105316656227 ◽

2016 ◽

Vol 23 (10) ◽

pp. 1350-1355

Author(s):

Marina Milyavskaya ◽

Daniel Nadolny

Keyword(s):

Social Support ◽

Goal Setting ◽

Goal Attainment ◽

Implementation Intentions ◽

Goal Pursuit ◽

Health Goals ◽

Health Goal ◽

Actual Use ◽

Reported Health

Although numerous factors have been demonstrated in laboratory settings to lead to more successful health goal attainment, their actual use in daily goal pursuit is unknown. This study examines spontaneously reported health goals and their characteristics in a sample of 557 American adults. Participants responded to questions about health and health goals, with items assessing motivation, social support, and implementation intentions. In all, 66 percent of respondents had a health goal, 26 percent of participants had implementation intentions, and 47 percent received support from close others. Results suggest that interventions should focus on encouraging goal setting, teaching implementation intentions, and educating close others in providing support.

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Serving up mealtime strategies : how families experience dementia in the community

10.32920/ryerson.14653482.v1 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Abigail Wickson

Keyword(s):

Sense Of Self ◽

Secondary Analysis ◽

Well Being ◽

Spousal Caregivers ◽

Data Set ◽

People With Dementia ◽

Adult Caregivers ◽

Late Stages ◽

Existing Data

The mealtime experiences for people with dementia and their caregivers living in the community has not been extensively explored. An existing data set provided information on the mealtime strategies used to cope with changing dementia behaviours. A secondary analysis of data from 10 dyads of people with dementia and their caregivers were analyzed. Four categories were identified including: Strategies to facilitate eating; Strategies to promote a sense of self; Stategies to minimize risk; and Strategies to promote caregiver well-being. The dyads used a variety of strategies that were common to all stages of dementia; however by the late stages, the dyads used more specific strategies. In general, the mealtime strategies used by adult caregivers and spousal caregivers did not greatly differ but rather the context in which they engaged in mealtimes did. The results demonstrated that there are opportunities to educate families and professionals about potential mealtime strategies.

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CAREGIVERS OF OLDER VIETNAMESE REFUGEES: FINDINGS FROM THE VIETNAMESE AGING AND CARE SURVEY (VACS)

Innovation in Aging ◽

10.1093/geroni/igz038.669 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 3 (Supplement_1) ◽

pp. S187-S187

Author(s):

Christina E Miyawaki ◽

Nai-Wei Chen ◽

Oanh L Meyer ◽

Mindy T Tran ◽

Kyriakos S Markides

Keyword(s):

Social Services ◽

Healthcare Professionals ◽

Financial Burden ◽

Adult Child ◽

Good Health ◽

Spousal Caregivers ◽

Vulnerable Group ◽

Vietnamese Refugees ◽

Excellent Health ◽

Care Survey

Abstract Since the fall of Saigon, over 1.3 million Vietnamese immigrated to the U.S. making Vietnamese the 4th largest Asian ethnic but most vulnerable group to disparities. There is a paucity of knowledge on the health of elders and their caregivers. The Vietnamese Aging and Care Survey (VACS) was developed, and health data on 67 caregivers were collected in Houston, Texas. Adult-child caregivers (n=44) were on average, 45.3 years old, married (64%), working (91%), female (61%) in good/excellent health (90%). Spousal caregivers (n=23) were 70.6 years-old, retired (57%), female (78%) in fair/good health (73%). Adult-child received more help (43%) than spousal caregivers (29%), however, felt more caregiver burden (p=0.01) and perceived stress (p=0.05). Living in a multi-generation household, sharing caregiving, and working may alleviate their financial burden and provide psychological support. Findings suggest healthcare professionals to encourage caregivers to utilize available culturally-relevant social services to further ease their caregiving experiences.

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Goal pursuit: Current state of affairs and directions for future research

10.31234/osf.io/qxswa ◽

2018 ◽

Author(s):

Marina Milyavskaya ◽

Kaitlyn M. Werner

Keyword(s):

Goal Setting ◽

Self Regulation ◽

Goal Pursuit ◽

Future Research ◽

Personal Goals ◽

Current State ◽

Distinct Unit ◽

State Of Affairs ◽

The Many ◽

Goal Characteristics

Personal goals are ubiquitous in everyday life, with people typically pursuing multiple personal goals at any given time. This paper provides a review and synthesis of the vast and varied research on personal goals. A growing body of research shows that goals are best conceptualized as a distinct unit of analysis, with extensive within-person variations in both goal characteristics and attainment. In this paper, we review existing literature on personal goals, examining the process of goal pursuit from start to finish, including goal setting, goal pursuit and self-regulation, and the outcomes associated with attainment and/or failure. We also address the many aspects of personal goal pursuit that are still poorly understood, highlighting directions for future research.

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Let’s play the blame game: The distinct effects of personal standards and self-critical perfectionism on attributions of success and failure during goal pursuit

10.31234/osf.io/um8zk ◽

2017 ◽

Author(s):

Shelby L. Levine ◽

Kaitlyn M. Werner ◽

Jonathan Steven Capaldi ◽

Marina Milyavskaya

Keyword(s):

Goal Attainment ◽

Goal Pursuit ◽

The Self ◽

Personal Goals ◽

Personal Standards ◽

External Sources ◽

Personal Standards Perfectionism

In the present study, we examined whether personal standards and self-critical perfectionism differentially related to how people attributed their success and failures in pursuing their personal goals. In two studies (Ns=185 and 240), participants set three week-long (Study 1) and semester-long (Study 2) goals, and at the end of the week or semester answered questions about goal status, internal and external attributions, and likelihood to reset the goal. Mulitlevel analyses showed that self-critical perfectionism was related to attributing goal attainment to external sources; this was not the case for failure or abandonment. Conversely, personal standards perfectionism was related to attributing failure more to external sources. Overall, these results highlight differences in how perfectionism influences the use of the self-serving bias.

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