“I can see the good, even when things around are rough”: Gratitude among family caregivers of people living with early-stage Alzheimer’s disease

ABSTRACT

The scientific understanding of gratitude has grown in recent years. However, research on the role gratitude plays in the lives of family caregivers of persons with Alzheimer’s disease in the early or begnning stages is limited. Therefore, the aim of the current study was to gain a rich understanding of gratitude through the narratives of 27 family caregivers of persons with early-stage Alzheimer’s. Interpretative phenomenological analysis, a qualitative methodology, was used to identify the following themes: (1) A caregiver’s individual affinity towards having a grateful life orientation influences their unique caregiving experience; (2) Gratitude for a range of resources, including what the person with Alzheimer’s continues to contribute, makes a difference; (3) Gratitude for the efforts of other people, including how caregiving strengthened relationships, was present; and (4) Spirituality is a gratitude-related resource which may be expressed behaviorally to enhance well-being among caregivers. This study provides an in depth understanding of gratitude in this unique and growing population which can inform the development of clinical interventions for improving well-being.

KEYWORDS:

• Alzheimer’s
• caregiving
• coping
• dementia
• gratitude
• well-being
• positive psychology
• spirituality

Author contributions

Conceptualization, J.S.M., M.D.; Methodology, J.S.M., M.D; Formal analysis, J.S.M., M.D., M.A.; Investigation, J.S.M.; Resources, J.S.M.; Data Curation, J.S.M.; Writing—original draft preparation, J.S.M., M.D., R.M., M.A., S.C.B.; Writing—review and editing, J.S.M., M.D., R.M. and S.C.B.; Supervision, J.S.M.; Project Administration, J.S.M. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Institutional Review Board Statement

The study was conducted in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki, and approved by the Institutional Review Boards of Baylor University [protocol code #346183-1, date of approval: 8 July 2012] and Baylor College of Medicine [protocol code #H27755, date of approval: 20 July 2012].

Informed consent statement

Informed consent was obtained from all research participants in the study.

Data availability statement

The data presented in this study are not publicly available for the purposes of privacy and confidentiality of research participants.

Additional information

Funding

This research received no external funding.