Eva Dierckx

Vrije Universiteit Brussel | VUB · Klinische En Levenslooppsychologie (KLEP)

Previous research has highlighted the importance of past life experiences in the theoretical and conceptual understanding of loneliness. However, adding a lifecourse perspective to loneliness research remains underexplored. To comprehend the complexity of loneliness in old age, it is crucial to pay attention to the lifecourse perspective. This stud...

In this rapidly aging society, one of the biggest challenges is the increasing cognitive decline with age. Although general cognitive control declines with age, different functions decline at a different onset, pace and trajectory. To better understand the cognitive control decline in aging, we recruited 75 young adults and three older adult cohort...

This handbook is currently in development, with individual articles publishing online in advance of print publication. At this time, we cannot add information about unpublished articles in this handbook; however, the table of contents will continue to grow as additional articles pass through the review process and are added to the site. Please note...

In earlier survey research, we observed a severe impact of the first peak of the COVID-19 pandemic on the subjective wellbeing, sleep and activity of adults aged 65 years or older in Flanders, Belgium. The impact on subjective cognitive functioning, however, was limited. Since then, periods of lockdown and periods with less strict regulations alter...

Background Personality disorders (PDs) are highly prevalent in clinical populations, causing patients to suffer from significant everyday impairment. According to Young’s schema theory, early maladaptive schemas (EMSs) are the driving force behind PDs. Methods Within a large clinical sample of 2043 psychiatric patients, we measured personality pat...

Background: The Personality Inventory for DSM-5 Brief Form + Modified (PID-5-BF+M) is a self-report questionnaire measuring maladaptive personality traits, as defined by the dimensional classifications of personality disorders in DSM-5 Section 3 and ICD-11. The instrument combines both classifications to capture six personality domains and 18 unde...

In earlier survey research, we observed a severe impact of the first peak of the COVID-19 pandemic on the subjective wellbeing, sleep and activity of adults aged 65 years or older in Flanders, Belgium. The impact on subjective cognitive functioning, however, was limited. Since then, periods of lockdown and periods with less strict regulations alter...

Background As people age, the risk of becoming frail increases, often leading to negative outcomes and less well-being. Within the light of prevention, early detection and guidance to the right care and support is crucial. This study aimed to give an overview of the descriptive results of the D-SCOPE program and evaluate the process. Methods The D...

In earlier research (De Pue et al., 2021), we observed a drastic impact of the first peak of the COVID-19 pandemic on the subjective wellbeing, sleep and activity of adults aged 65 years or older in Flanders, Belgium. The impact on subjective cognitive functioning, however, was limited. Since then, periods of lockdown and periods with less strict r...

Objectives: Gender has been identified as an important social determinant for health. This study investigates gender-specific characteristics for alcohol use (AU) among community-dwelling older adults. Methods: This is a retrospective cross-sectional study in 1.406 community-dwelling older adults. We used standardized questionnaires to collect s...

Objective The aim of the present study is to describe a stepwise approach to study which contextual factors might moderate the effect of healthcare interventions and to test feasibility of this approach within the D-SCOPE project. Design Exploratory case study. Setting In the D-SCOPE project, a complex intervention by means of home visits was set...

Background and aim: Temperament and personality traits are important factors underlying the vulnerability for both initiation and continuation of addictive behaviors. In SUDs there is a high comorbidity with mood and anxiety disorders and personality disorders. As there is a growing interest in the possible transdiagnostic role of Effortful Control...

Background and aim: Based upon a person-centred approach, there is a growing interest in neurobiological transdiagnostic factors, such as reactive temperament (Behavioral Inhibition (BIS) and Behavioral Activation Systems (BAS)) and regulatory processes (Effortful Control (EC)). Three temperament-based personality types (Resilient, Undercontrolled...

With increasing life expectancy, the population of older adults is growing. As people get older, their chances of developing cognitive impairment and, ultimately, dementia increase. Since pharmaceutical treatments of dementia are proving unsuccessful, studies in the cognitive field in both healthy and clinical aging become more crucial in understan...

Aim To explore the perception of mental healthcare workers about participation of inpatients during multidisciplinary team meetings (MTMs) and to determine which demographic and contextual factors are associated with this perception. Methods A cross-sectional multicentre study in 17 psychiatric hospitals with 701 mental healthcare workers was perf...

Objectives: The aim of this study is to increase the understanding of loneliness experienced as positive, by exploring the demographic and situational characteristics of older people who experience loneliness as positive. Method: Two binary logistic regressions were conducted using data from those aged 60+ from the BBC Loneliness Experiment (N =...

Temperament and personality traits are important factors underlying the vulnerability for both the initiation and continuation of addictive behaviors. We investigated the influence of reactive and regulative temperament and their interaction in relation to clinical symptomatology and personality disorders (PDs) in a sample of 841 inpatients (68.1%...

The first peak of the COVID-19 pandemic strongly impacted the wellbeing of older adults (De Pue et al., 2021). We re-assessed the wellbeing, cognitive functioning, sleep quality and activity level of 372 older adults in a second (June – July 2020) and third wave (December 2020) of a survey study. To evaluate the longer-term impact of the pandemic,...

This study investigates experiences of recent adverse and positive life events, and how these impact lonely older adults. Qualitative individual interviews were conducted with 53 community-dwelling, lonely older people aged 60 years and over. Analyses identified four key findings. First, the results pointed to a variety of recent life events in dif...

Although it has been postulated that eating disorders (EDs) and obesity form part of a broad spectrum of eating- and weight-related disorders, this has not yet been tested empirically. In the present study, we investigated interindividual differences in sensitivity to punishment, sensitivity to reward, and effortful control along the ED/obesity spe...

Background: One of the best-known tools in screening for hazardous drinking is the Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test (AUDIT) and its abbreviated form, the AUDIT-C. The aim of the present study is to determine the cut-offs of both instruments in identifying hazardous drinking in older adults. Method: A sample of 1577 older adults complete...

Purpose – In the context of early detection of frail older people, prior research found several risk factors of multidimensional frailty. The current study aims to validate these risk factors. Design/methodology/approach – Two data sets, Belgian Ageing Studies and Detection, Support and Care for older people: Prevention and Empowerment (BAS and D-...

Background and Aims In the present study, we investigated differences in obsessive–compulsive (OC) symptoms in patients with an eating disorder (ED) with or without recent/lifetime impulsive non‐suicidal self‐injury (NSSI). We included 429 female inpatients with an ED, of whom 31.9% engaged in recent impulsive NSSI and 56.4% in lifetime impulsive N...

Research on the validity of the behavioral inhibition system/behavioral approach system (BIS/BAS) scales focused on adolescent, student and adult populations. This study is the first to examine the psychometric properties of the BIS/BAS scales in a community (n = 368) and a clinical sample (n = 160) of older adults. Exploratory structural equation...

COVID-19 took a heavy toll on older adults. In Belgium, by the end of August, 93% of deaths due to COVID-19 were aged 65 or older. Similar trends were observed in other countries. As a consequence, older adults were identified as a group at risk, and strict governmental restrictions were imposed on them. This has caused concerns about their mental...

Objectives Although older adults often experience negative life events or loss experiences, they rarely experience large decreases in their quality of life or well-being. Emotionally satisfying relationships in older adults may serve as a protective factor that reduces the impact of negative events in decreasing well-being. The availability of thes...

A growing body of work suggests that social and activity participation (SAP) may contribute to health and well-being. Studies examining the effects of these activities largely focused on healthy older adults and older adults with more resources, not on frail older adults. On the latter, there is a lack of information about which activities contribu...

Introduction We examined the psychometric properties of the CD-RISC, including factor structure. Secondly, we examined if resilience factors moderate the association between negative affect and hazardous alcohol use. Method The sample population consisted of 1,368 community-dwelling older adults. We used standardized questionnaires to collect self...

Introduction: Drinking motives seem to be the most proximal predictors of alcohol outcomes. Consequently, these are an essential factor to consider as they may influence the extent to which alcohol is used in a risky way, even in older adults. Objective: We studied the moderating effect of distress on the relationship between drinking motives an...

Eating disorder (ED) patients show alarmingly high prevalence rates of Non-Suicidal Self-Injury (NSSI). Adolescents seem to be particularly at risk, as EDs and NSSI both have their onset in mid-adolescence. It has been suggested that personality could be a transdiagnostic mechanism underlying both EDs and NSSI. However, little attention has been gi...

Vrouwelijke patiënten met een eetstoornis (ES) rapporteren een van de hoogste prevalentiecijfers van nietsuïcidaal zelfverwondend gedrag (ZVG). Temperament en karakter zou als transdiagnostisch mechanisme deze sterke comorbiditeit kunnen verklaren, maar onderzoek focuste voornamelijk op niet-klinische en/of volwassen steekproeven. Toch is de adoles...

COVID-19 took a heavy toll on older adults. In Belgium, by the end of August, 93% of deaths due to COVID-19 were aged 65 or older. Similar trends were observed in other countries. As a consequence, older adults were identified as a group at risk, and strict governmental restrictions were imposed on them. This has caused concerns about their mental...

Despite growing clinical attention to personality disorders in older adults (≥ 55 yrs.), empirical research addressing personality pathology in late life is scarce. Given the ageing of the population globally, scientific knowledge in this area is of vital importance. This article gives an overview of the epidemiological aspects of personality disor...

Eating disorder (ED) patients show alarmingly high prevalence rates of Non-Suicidal Self-Injury (NSSI). Adolescents seem to be particularly at risk, as EDs and NSSI both have their onset in mid-adolescence. It has been suggested that personality could be a transdiagnostic mechanism underlying both EDs and NSSI. However, little attention has been gi...

BACKGROUND The role of the context within intervention studies is often ignored. To consider the context in future research, one needs to know whether enough information is available, and a uniform methodology to study the local context in a standardized way is desirable. Through the World Wide Web, a lot of information is nowadays available. OBJE...

Effortful control (EC) or self-regulation refers to the ability to regulate behavior, emotion, and cognition. It has been identified as a contributor to both adaptive and adverse outcomes in children, adolescents, and adults and this across many domains. As such, it could be considered as a transdiagnostic dimension underlying internalizing (e.g.,...

Objectives: Despite growing interest in the impact of physical and social environment on mental health, data are lacking on the potential mediating effects of loneliness. We examined it in the association of several social and physical environmental characteristics with mental health among older adults in three municipalities in Flanders (Belgium)....

Introduction: Both in personality assessment and scientific research, self-report questionnaires are frequently used, yet the use of informant-report is increasing. The aim of this systematic review is to address the concordance and added value of informant- versus self-report in measuring personality pathology in (older) adults. Method: A syste...

Ruptured anterior communicating artery aneurysms are commonly associated with deficits in memory and executive functions. However, little studies are available on the effect of surgical clipping (SC) and endovascular coiling (EC) on cognitive functioning. This study evaluates cognitive functioning in 35 patients with subarachnoid hemorrhage after r...

A growing body of work suggest that leisure and civic activities may contribute to the understanding of healthy aging. Yet, only a limited number of studies have examined a less healthy population. Moreover, a broad array of leisure and civic activities tend to be lacking. This paper gives insight into the mechanisms underlying the associations bet...

Older people are often confronted with dependence, death of spouse and other loss experience. Nevertheless, older adults generally experience a good well-being. This lack of age-related decline of subjective well-being has been named the ‘paradox of ageing’. One possible explanation for this paradox can be found in the socio-emotional selectivity t...

Background: Cognitive frailty has long been defined as the co-occurrence of mild cognitive deficits and physical frailty. However, recently, a new approach to cognitive frailty has been proposed: cognitive frailty as a distinct construct. Nonetheless, the relationship between this relatively new construct of cognitive frailty and other frailty dom...

Researchers propose that the convoy of care model should be used to study care networks of frail, older individuals. Care convoys are defined as the evolving collection of individuals who may or may not have close personal connections to the recipient or to one another, but who provide care, including help with activities of daily living (ADLs) and...

Since the 1970's, frailty emerged as a major theme and has become one of the most researched topics in aging studies. However, throughout the years, the concept 'frailty' became susceptible to different interpretations and has been approached by different synonyms, which resulted in a confusing picture. Based on a narrative literature review, this...

Dit artikel focust op kwetsbaarheid en hoe het D-SCOPE project dankzij drie verschillende onderzoeksfases een methodiek voor vroegtijdige detectie van kwetsbare ouderen ontwikkelde, testte en evalueerde. Lokale overheden en zorgorganisaties kunnen met het D-SCOPE zes-stappenmodel aan de slag om kwetsbare thuiswonende ouderen te detecteren en hen te...

Objective Studies of frailty have tended to focus on adverse outcomes. This study aims to develop a short instrument that identifies a positive outcome, namely, the level of well-being in older adults at risk of frailty. Method 871 older adults (49.4% women; mean age 75.72 years; SD = 8.05) with a frailty risk profile participated in the first wav...

Objectives: The objective of this systematic review was (1) to give an overview of the available short screening instruments for the early detection of Alzheimer's disease (AD) and (2) to review the psychometric properties of these instruments. Methods: First, a systematic search of titles and abstracts of PubMed and Web of Science was conducted...

Objective: This study examine the prevalence, characteristics and associated factors of alcohol use and alcohol related problems among Belgian community dwelling older adults. Design: Retrospective cross-sectional study by extensive examination survey. Setting: The participants were questioned in their homes or in community centres. Participants: O...

Non-suicidal self-injury (NSSI) and borderline personality disorder (BPD) features are common in patients with eating disorders (ED), yet little is known regarding the clinical presentation of ED patients who present with NSSI with and without BPD. The current study compared self-injurious, female ED inpatients with (n = 98; NSSI+BPD) and without B...

Frail, older care recipients are often thought of as individuals with a decreased mastery of everyday life skills. Various authors have proposed to acknowledge a relational dimension of mastery, defined as the ability to maintain control over one's life with the help of others. This study explores how frail, older adults experience relational aspec...

We explored whether it is possible to establish subgroups of patients with a substance use disorder (SUD) based on differences in Behavioral Activation System Reactivity (BAS), Behavioral Inhibition System Reactivity (BIS) and Effortful control (EC). Further, we investigated if the identified subgroups differ on clinical symptoms, personality disor...

Background: Frail community-dwelling older adults, whom might experience problems regarding physical, cognitive, psychological, social and environmental factors, are at risk for adverse outcomes such as disability, institutionalization and mortality. People in need of help do not always find their way to care and support services and are left unde...

Personality features are considered to be important factors in the pathogenesis of both eating disorder (ED) and substance use disorder (SUD). This study investigates similarities and differences between these early maladaptive schemas (EMSs) (a) between female patients with ED (N = 179) or SUD (N = 169) and (b) between ED subtypes of the restricti...

Objectives: This study examines different combinations of informal and formal care use of older adults and investigates whether these combinations differ in terms of need for care (physical and psychological frailty) and enabling factors for informal and formal care use (social and environmental frailty). Methods: Using cross-sectional data from...

DOEL: Deze studie gaat na hoe thuiswonende, kwetsbare ouderen hun kwetsbaarheid en hun welbevinden ervaren. Daarnaast tracht de studie een antwoord te vinden op de vraag welke factoren ervoor zorgen dat kwetsbare ouderen een positief welbevinden hebben binnen een project met 24-uurszorggarantie aan huis (Zorg24). METHODE: Kwalitatieve studie met t...

The Young Schema Questionnaire (YSQ, Young, 1994) was developed to assess Early Maladaptive Schemas (EMS), which account for the dysfunctional beliefs in individuals with personality disorders or maladaptive personality traits. This study aims to investigate the factor structure, the reliability and the validity of the original YSQ – Short Form (Yo...

Background: The debate on frailty in later life focuses primarily on deficits and their associations with adverse (health) outcomes. In addition to deficits, it may also be important to consider the abilities and resources of older adults. This study was designed to gain insights into the lived experiences of frailty among older adults to determin...

Prevalence data of elder abuse from social and health services only present a tip of the iceberg. A large amount of situations of abuse is left undetected. Professionals often lack knowledge and skills on the topic of abuse. Consequently, this paper focuses on supporting professionals to prevent and assess elder abuse by developing and testing the...

In het verlenen van “goede zorg en ondersteuning voor ouderen” is aandacht nodig voor de preventie van kwetsbaarheid bij ouderen. Een gerichte casefinding van (mogelijk) kwetsbare ouderen is hierbij essentieel om correcte preventieve maatregelen te nemen. Dit onderzoek heeft als doel om risicoprofielen en risicofactoren van kwetsbaarheid bij oudere...

This article aims to identify relations between socio-demographic/socio-economic characteristics and the use of informal and formal care. All analyses were performed on data from the Belgian Ageing Studies, a survey among community-dwelling older people (60+) in Belgium. Latent class analyses were used to identify types of care use and bivariate an...

Substance use disorders (SUDs)are highly prevalent psychiatric disorders with a poor treatment outcome. • Personality traits are considered to be important risk factors in the etiology of SUDs. • Developing strategies to identify subgroups of patients with SUDs, based upon personality dimensions, could possibly result in more personalized treatment...

This study reports on a pilot study of a family group intervention with or without patient participation adjunctive to a specialized inpatient treatment for eating disorders (EDs). Participants were 112 female adolescent ED inpatients and one or both of their parents. The parents were invited to participate in an adjunctive multi-family group with...

Recently, cognitive frailty was added as a new domain to the Comprehensive Frailty Assessment Instrument (CFAI). The CFAI is a well-studied instrument that measures physical, psychological, social, environmental and cognitive frailty. Nevertheless little is known about the interaction between cognitive frailty and the other domains. The goal of thi...

This paper investigates risk profiles of frailty among older people, as these are essential for detecting individuals at risk for adverse outcomes and to undertake specific preventive actions. Frailty is not only a physical problem, but also refers to emotional, social, and environmental hazards. In a first phase, data from the Belgian Ageing Studi...

The Comprehensive Frailty Assessment Instrument (CFAI) measures four domains of frailty: physical, psychological, social and environmental frailty. The absence of cognitive frailty can be seen as a shortage. Therefore we conducted a study in which we administered to 355 older adults (mean age 77.62) the CFAI, The Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA...

Objectives Cognitive frailty is characterized by the presence of cognitive impairment in exclusion of dementia. In line with other frailty domains, cognitive frailty is associated with negative outcomes. The Comprehensive Frailty Assessment Instrument (CFAI) measures 4 domains of frailty, namely physical, psychological, social, and environmental fr...

Dit artikel focust op kwetsbaarheid bij thuiswonende ouderen. Onderzoek binnen de gerontologie heeft aangetoond dat vele ouderen de wens uitdrukken om oud te worden in de vertrouwde leefsituatie, internationaal omschreven met de term ‘ageing in place’. Willen we ‘ageing in place’ op een kwaliteitsvolle manier mogelijk maken, dan is een vroegtijdige...

The current study examines whether autonomy-supportive and controlling parenting are related to the presence/absence of binge-eating/purging behaviour and/or non-suicidal self-injury in adolescents with an eating disorder (ED). Fifty-three ED patients completed validated questionnaires assessing perceived maternal and paternal autonomy-supportive a...

In this study, we evaluated persistent cognitive deficits in whiplash injury (WI) patients and compared these to cognitive functioning in mild traumatic brain injury (MTBI) patients and healthy controls (HC). Sixty-one patients suffering from a WI were compared with 57 patients suffering from a MTBI and with 30 HC. They were examined with an extens...

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This study investigates early maladaptive schemas (EMSs) in function of eating disorder (ED) subtypes (restrictive/bulimic) and the presence/absence of non-suicidal self-injury (NSSI). Female inpatients (N = 491) completed the Young Schema Questionnaire and the Self-Injury Questionnaire. The influence of ED subtype and the presence/absence of NSSI...

Objectives: This paper investigates risk profiles of frailty among older people, as these are essential for detecting those individuals at risk for adverse outcomes and to undertake specific preventive actions. Frailty is not only a physical problem, but also refers to emotional, social, and environmental hazards. Methods: Using data generated f...

This study investigated the caregiving experiences of mothers and fathers of restrictive and binge-eating/purging eating disordered (ED) inpatients with and without non-suicidal self-injury (NSSI). Sixty-five mothers and 65 fathers completed the Experience of Caregiving Inventory. All inpatients completed the Self-Injury Questionnaire-Treatment Rel...