Priming nursing home caregivers with information about resident depression status: Effects on implicit attitude and motivation regarding behaviors to improve resident mood

Objective This study explored whether priming nursing home caregivers with information about resident depressive symptoms and a formal depression diagnosis affects their implicit attitude (positive versus negative valence) and implicit motivation (wanting versus not wanting) regarding caregiver behaviors to improve resident mood. Method A randomized within-subjects design with three time points at monthly intervals was used. Dutch nursing home caregivers completed two Implicit Association Tasks (IATs) at each time point ( N = 119, 85, 81): the Valence towards Behaviors to improve resident Mood IAT and the Motivation for Behaviors to improve resident Mood IAT. Three textual vignettes were used as primes, describing a resident under one of three conditions: A) no depressive symptoms and no formal depression diagnosis, B) depressive symptoms without a depression diagnosis, and C) depressive symptoms with a depression diagnosis. Results Mixed model analyses indicated that neither information about depressive symptoms nor awareness of a depression diagnosis significantly predicted caregiver implicit attitude. Information about depressive symptoms significantly predicted implicit motivation (estimated effect: 0.23 [0.01, 0.45]), whereas information about a depression diagnosis did not. Conclusions Priming caregivers with information about resident depression status may not significantly influence their implicit attitude towards mood-improving behaviors for residents but may affect their implicit motivation for these behaviors. Caregivers might be more motivated to engage in mood-improving behaviors when informed that a resident has depressive symptoms, although these findings should be interpreted cautiously given the modest effect sizes and the study limitations.