Clinical trial NCT06507826: Self-Compassionate Writing for Caregivers of Older Adults
Official title: Online Intervention Using Self-Compassionate Writing to Induce Positive Mood in Family Caregivers of Older Adults
Study type: INTERVENTIONAL
Overall status: COMPLETED
Phase: NA
Conditions: Self-Compassion
Control
Keywords: Mindfulness
Self-kindness
Common humanity
Self-compassion
Lead sponsor: University of Reading
Sponsor class: OTHER
First posted: 2024-07-18
Enrollment: 652
Sex: ALL
Minimum age (years): 18
Maximum age (years): 100
Standard ages: ADULT
OLDER_ADULT
Accepts healthy volunteers: yes
Allocation: RANDOMIZED
Intervention model: PARALLEL
Primary purpose: SUPPORTIVE_CARE

Brief summary: The goal of this study was to test an online writing intervention to encourage a self-compassionate mindset in family caregivers of older adults. The main aims were to answer the questions:

* Writing with self-compassion would increase self-compassion.
* Writing with self-compassion would improve mood. Researchers compared self-compassion components (self-kindness, which involves a gentle and non-judgemental approach to oneself at times of difficulty; common humanity, which includes recognising one's difficulties as part of a shared human experience; mindfulness, which includes noticing difficult feelings without becoming overwhelmed by them) to see which combinations achieved the best outcomes.

Participants wrote with different combinations of self-compassion components together, such as mindfulness and common humanity or mindfulness and self-kindness. Participants also wrote with self-kindness, common humanity, or mindfulness separately.

Detailed description: After being informed and consenting to participate in the study, participants were allocated to a self-compassion or control condition. The study was designed to target state self-compassion and mood. The research was carried out over three studies, with refinements being made each time based on previous outcomes. In Studies 1 and 2, participants were tested for self-compassion and mood (guilt, sadness, and serenity). after the writing tasks. In Study 3, participants were asked to complete measures for these both before and after the writing tasks. The experiments were carried out online for all three studies.

Eligibility criteria: Inclusion Criteria:

* Family carer.
* Caring for a person over 65 years of age.
* Participants over 18 years of age.

Exclusion Criteria:

* Professional carers.
* Caring person under 65 years of age.
* Participants under 18 years of age.

Primary outcomes:
measure: Self-kindness measured with the State Self-Compassion Scale (Neff et al., 2021)
timeFrame: State measured immediately after intervention
measure: Common humanity measured with the State Self-Compassion Scale (Neff et al., 2021)
timeFrame: State measured immediately after intervention
measure: Mindfulness measured with the State Self-Compassion Scale (Neff et al., 2021)
timeFrame: State measured immediately after intervention
Secondary outcomes:
measure: Guilt measured using the Positive and Negative Affect Schedule (Watson and Clark, 1999)
timeFrame: State measured immediately after intervention
measure: Sadness measured using the Positive and Negative Affect Schedule (Watson and Clark, 1999)
timeFrame: State measured immediately after intervention
measure: Serenity measured using the Positive and Negative Affect Schedule (Watson and Clark, 1999)
timeFrame: State measured immediately after intervention
Other outcomes:
Locations:
city: Reading
country: United Kingdom
facility: University of Reading
state: Berkshire
Study officials:
affiliation: University of Reading
name: Aileen K Ho, PhD
role: PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR
References:
citation: Neff, K. D., Tóth-Király, I., Knox, M. C., Kuchar, A., & Davidson, O. (2021). The development and validation of the state self-compassion scale (long-and short form). Mindfulness, 12, 121-140.
citation: Watson, David & Clark, Lee. (1999). The PANAS-X: Manual for the positive and negative affect schedule-expanded form. Psychology Publications.