When the foundation for a shared life is in change: How couples living with dementia can be supported in their management of communicative and interactional problems over time

Research problem and specific questionsCouples share a large common ground of experiences that they may benefit from in their interaction and daily life.

Symptoms from a dementia disorder affect the person with dementia´s ability to remember, and s/he may have a difficult time taking part in conversations.

The very foundation of couples´ relationship and communication often becomes challenged, and couples develop different management strategies, which supposedly change in line with the dementia progression.

The aim for this longitudinal project is to increase knowledge about management strategies employed by couples to deal with communicative and interactional troubles as a dementia disease progresses.

Specifically, we will identify and describe the characteristics and development of different management strategies employed by the couples.

The research questions are: (1) How do repair sequences and management strategies change over time in conversations and joint storytelling as the dementia disorder progresses? (2) How do strategies for dealing with a diverging common ground in joint story telling change over time? (3) How does the organization of the conversation, especially in terms of introduction of new topics, change over time? (4) How do the strategies for positioning the spouses as a couple, change over time?Data and methodIn the project, analysis of 52 videorecorded interviews with 15 couples, recorded between year 2011-2016 will be conducted.

The first year’s round of interviews has been analyzed by the research group and will be a baseline for further analysis of the development of management strategies.

We benefit from the theoretical framework of ´couplehood´, as in spouses´ positionings as heterosexual couples, together with the framework of ´common ground´, that is the shared memories, experiences, and assumptions.

We will also analyze the participants´ gestures, facial expressions, and gazes during the interaction.Relevance and utilizationThis project provides empirical ground for adapted support to couples living with progressing dementia.

The research findings provide a foundation for communication training with stakeholders in dementia care and support, in line with the established method Conversation Analytic Role-Play Method – CARM.Plan for project realizationThe funding applied for regards coding and analysis of recorded data (year 1 and 2 mainly) and communication training (year 3), all deemed feasible within the time frame.