Development of a brief scale to measure discrete positive emotions in dementia family caregiving: the positive emotions in caregiving scale (PEC-S)

Although family dementia caregiving is a stressful situation, it can also involve positive experiences. Given the lack of brief instruments to measure discrete positive emotions towards the person with dementia (PwD), this study aimed at developing and analyzing a new measurement, the ‘Positive Emotions in Caregiving Scale’ (PEC-S), examining its relationship with key aspects of dementia caregiving. 313 family caregivers of PwD were administered the PEC-S, and were assessed for frequency and reaction to behavioral and psychological symptoms of dementia (BPSD), PwD’s functional status, depressive and anxious symptomatology, feelings of guilt, leisure, and social support. Analyses included internal consistency, exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis, gender and kinship differences, and associations between the study variables. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis suggested a unique one-factor solution with all items having factor loadings higher than .40 and with an optimal fit of the model to the data, explaining a total of 58.54 of the variance. Cronbach’s alpha for the PEC-S was .85. Gender and kinship differences were found, and the PEC-S was negatively correlated with the frequency and reaction to BPSD, the PwD’s functional capacity, caregivers’ anxious, depressive and guilt feelings, while positively associated with leisure and social support. The PEC-S is a reliable and valid instrument for briefly measuring discrete positive emotions towards the PwD and the caregiving situation, which are significantly related to caregivers’ well-being.