Caregivers’ positive emotional language predicts their depression trajectories after dementia caregiving ends

Jenna L Wells, Julian A Scheffer, Suzanne M Shdo, Claire I Yee, Kevin J Grimm, Alissa B Sideman, Bruce L Miller, Jennifer J Merrilees, Katherine L Possin, Robert W Levenson and Elizabeth Muñoz

The Journals of Gerontology: Series B, 2026, vol. 81, issue 3, gbaf267.

Abstract: ObjectivesThere are striking differences among caregivers of people with dementia in their health and well-being during active caregiving and after caregiving has ended. A key factor influencing caregiver health is the emotional quality of the caregiver–care recipient relationship, which may be reflected in the emotional language caregivers use when describing this relationship. The present study assessed whether caregivers’ positive and negative language is associated with their current and future depression trajectories.MethodsActive caregivers responded to an open-ended question about a recent time they felt connected to the care recipient. We summed the number of positive and negative emotion words and divided them by the total words in the response. We evaluated whether caregivers’ emotional language (a proxy for the emotional quality of the caregiver–care recipient relationship) was associated with their depression assessed both concurrently (N = 347 active caregivers) and longitudinally (N = 224 former caregivers).ResultsNeither positive nor negative emotional language significantly correlated with caregiver depression during active caregiving. Structural equation modeling revealed caregivers’ greater positive emotional language (accounting for baseline depression) was associated with less steep increases in depression after the care recipient’s death. Results were robust when accounting for negative emotional language and covariates. Negative emotional language was not significantly associated with changes in caregiver depression.DiscussionCaregivers who use more positive words when describing their connection with the care recipient may be more resilient, underscoring the potential role of positive emotional qualities of the caregiving relationship in preserving caregivers’ mental health after caregiving ends.

Keywords: Positive and negative emotion; Interpersonal connection; Depression during and after caregiving; Text analysis; Neurodegenerative disease (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2026
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