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Published on: April 11, 2025
Psychological intervention targets for people with visual impairments: the importance of cognitive coping and goal
Nadia Garnefski1, Vivian Kraaij, Marjolein De Graaf
1Department of Clinical, Health and Neuropsychology, Leiden University, Leiden, The Netherlands. martin.nadia@planet.nl
Purpose:
This study represents, to our knowledge, the first examination of the joint influence of cognitive coping strategies and goal-related coping on depressive symptoms in people with severe visual impairments with the aim of finding targets for intervention.
Method:
In total, data of 67 individuals with visual impairments were assembled by telephone interviews. Depressive symptomatology, cognitive coping strategies, and goal-related coping processes were measured. Relationships between these variables were statistically analyzed by Pearson correlations and multiple regression analyses.
Results:
It was shown that a ruminative way of responding to visual impairments was related to more depressive symptoms among the study participants. In contrast, refocusing attention by seeking and re-engaging in alternative, meaningful goals was related to less depressive symptoms.
Conclusions:
On the basis of the results, it was concluded that both cognitive and goal-related coping could be important targets for intervention. Main components of treatment should include a combination of (1) teaching patients to decrease a ruminative way of thinking in response to their disabilities and (2) actively assisting patients in the search for and the re-engagement in new personal goals, when existing goals are obstructed by their impairments.
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