Psychological Flexibility in Dementia Caregiving: The Adaptive Support Model

Abstract

Dementia caregiving often involves sustained emotional disruption and ambiguous loss, yet many interventions focus on burden reduction without specifying the adaptive processes that sustain caregiving over time. We propose psychological flexibility as a central moderating process in how caregivers interpret stressors, mobilize resources, and sustain engagement in the face of chronic relational ambiguity. Drawing from the Family Adjustment and Adaptation Response (FAAR) model and Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), we introduce the Adaptive Support Model (ASM), which conceptualizes psychological flexibility as moderating the relationships between caregiving demands, meaning‐making processes, and adaptive outcomes. Higher psychological flexibility is expected to weaken associations between ambiguous loss, related distress, and maladaptive outcomes, while strengthening pathways toward values‐aligned caregiving and bonadaptation. By integrating psychological flexibility into Family Stress and Resilience Theory, the Adaptive Support Model offers a testable conceptual framework and clinical roadmap for supporting sustainable, emotionally attuned dementia caregiving.