Cultural Adaptation and Preliminary Psychometric Properties of Two Positive Psychology Outcome Measures for Hong Kong Chinese People with Dementia

Part 1 is a conceptual introduction to the recent application of positive psychology to understanding personal strengths and positive experiences that endure after a dementia diagnosis in Western populations. It proposes and provides evidence for the applicability of the framework to the study of subjective experiences and wellbeing of Chinese counterparts. This provides the rationale and empirical basis for Part 2. Part 2 is the empirical paper of a mixed methods study conducted in Hong Kong that aimed to explore the generalisability and cultural specificity of select positive psychology constructs to Chinese people with dementia (PwD), and to culturally adapt two positive psychology outcome measures for PwD (the Positive Psychology Outcome Measure and the Engagement and Independence in Dementia Questionnaire; PPOM and EID-Q). The study involved thematic analysis on interviews with PwD and carers to explore the meaning of four positive psychology constructs to PwD (hope, resilience, independence and social engagement), qualitative feedback on the two outcome measures to guide cultural adaptation, and a pilot study to investigate the preliminary psychometric properties of the culturally adapted measures. The findings suggest that the constructs are generalisable to Hong Kong PwD but there are cultural specificities in the way they manifest, and provide preliminary evidence for cultural relevance and adequate psychometric properties of the Cantonese PPOM and EID-Q. Part 3 contains further discussion of findings as well as challenges and dilemmas encountered in the empirical study, and concludes with personal reflections. This thesis only includes literature that has been published in English