A psychosocial model of parent fixation in people with dementia: The role of personality and attachment

Osborne, Hannah and Stokes, Graham and Simpson, Jane (2010) A psychosocial model of parent fixation in people with dementia: The role of personality and attachment. Aging and Mental Health, 14 (8). pp. 928-937. ISSN 1360-7863

Full text not available from this repository.

Abstract

This study replicates and extends research into the occurrence of parent fixation in people with dementia by exploring the relationship between demographic, cognitive and psychological factors. Fifty-one people with dementia, living both in the community and in residential/nursing home settings, were interviewed about their parents and a relative of each completed measures assessing the person with dementia's demographic details, level of cognitive impairment/executive functioning, behavioural consequences of parent fixation and pre-morbid personality and attachment style. Results indicated that parent fixation can be viewed as a psychosocial phenomenon arising from the environment, pre-morbid personality and attachment style and that the behavioural consequences of parent fixation are maintained by the individual's level of executive functioning and gender. Findings and clinical implications are discussed in relation to Miesen's (1992, 1993, 1999) theoretical assumption that dementia is a loss process that activates the experience of feeling unsafe and the emotional need for the security of an attachment figure.

Item Type:
Journal Article
Journal or Publication Title:
Aging and Mental Health
Uncontrolled Keywords:
/dk/atira/pure/core/keywords/health/clinicalpsychology
Subjects:
?? challenging behaviourattachmentpersonalityclinical psychologygerontologygeriatrics and gerontologypsychiatry and mental healthphychiatric mental healthbf psychology ??
ID Code:
56451
Deposited By:
Deposited On:
01 Aug 2012 12:16
Refereed?:
Yes
Published?:
Published
Last Modified:
15 Jul 2024 13:04