Psychological intervention targets for people with visual impairments: The importance of cognitive coping and goal adjustment

Abstract

Purpose. This study represents, to our knowledge, the first examination of the joint influence of cognitive coping strategies and goal-related coping on depressive symptoms in people with severe visual impairments with the aim of finding targets for intervention.

Method. In total, data of 67 individuals with visual impairments were assembled by telephone interviews. Depressive symptomatology, cognitive coping strategies, and goal-related coping processes were measured. Relationships between these variables were statistically analyzed by Pearson correlations and multiple regression analyses.

Results. It was shown that a ruminative way of responding to visual impairments was related to more depressive symptoms among the study participants. In contrast, refocusing attention by seeking and re-engaging in alternative, meaningful goals was related to less depressive symptoms.

Conclusions. On the basis of the results, it was concluded that both cognitive and goal-related coping could be important targets for intervention. Main components of treatment should include a combination of (1) teaching patients to decrease a ruminative way of thinking in response to their disabilities and (2) actively assisting patients in the search for and the re-engagement in new personal goals, when existing goals are obstructed by their impairments.

Keywords:

• Visual impairment
• depression
• goal setting
• coping

Declaration of interest: The authors report no conflicts of interest. The authors alone are responsible for the content and writing of the article.

Notes

1. People with visual impairments are able to access a computer using a speech synthesizer or a refreshable braille display.

2. These background variables were selected because they were found to be significantly related to depression in previous research [11].