Aging Knowledge Moderates How Aging Anxiety Relates to Expectations of Counseling Clients with Alzheimer’s Disease

TL;DR

This study explores how psychology trainees' anxiety about aging affects their expectations when counseling Alzheimer's patients, and how aging knowledge can moderate these effects.

Contribution

The study identifies how different types of aging knowledge moderate the relationship between aging anxiety and clinical expectations for counseling Alzheimer’s clients.

Findings

Higher aging anxiety predicts less positive expectations of older adult clients with Alzheimer’s.

Greater psychological aging knowledge reduces the negative impact of aging anxiety on clinical expectations.

Low biological aging knowledge correlates with more positive expectations when fear of old people is reduced.

Abstract

As the aging population grows, psychologists must be prepared to meet older adults’ psychological needs, including those with neurocognitive disorders such as Alzheimer’s disease (AD). Because few psychology trainees receive any aging-focused training, their clinical expectations for counseling older adult clients with AD may be negatively influenced by a lack of knowledge about aging and by their aging anxiety, which could compromise quality of care. This study examined how trainees’ aging anxiety related to their expectations about counseling an older adult client with AD and whether knowledge about aging moderated this relationship. Doctoral trainees (N = 188; 21-35 years) in clinical and counseling psychology completed measures assessing aging anxiety, knowledge about aging (biological, psychological, social domains), and expectations about counseling an older adult recently diagnosed with AD, described in a case vignette. Regression analyses found that greater aging anxiety (surrounding psychological concerns and fear of old people) predicted trainees’ perceptions of this client as less open to therapy, having less motivation to engage in therapy, and having less responsibility for their therapy. Moderation analyses indicated having greater psychological aging knowledge made trainees more resilient to the negative influence of psychological concerns about aging on expectations of the client, however with low biological aging knowledge, less fear of old people was related to more positive clinical expectations of the client. These findings highlight the importance of integrating targeted geropsychology education into psychology training to reduce the influence of aging anxiety on clinical expectations and improve preparedness for counseling older adults with AD.