A Two-Step Model for Encouraging the General Public to Exhibit Helping Behaviors Toward People Living With Dementia

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Dementia awareness initiatives aim to promote helping behaviors toward people living with dementia. We applied the bystander intervention process model in the context of the general public’s helping behaviors toward people living with dementia, and we sought to identify the mechanisms underlying the association between dementia knowledge and helping behaviors. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS: In a survey featuring vignettes for the general public in Japan (N = 904), we presented four situations in which people could exhibit helping behaviors toward a person with dementia. Guttman scale analysis was used to test this sequential ordering of the bystander intervention process model: (a) interpreting the need to help, (b) perceiving personal responsibility, and (c) intention to provide help. Mediation analysis was used to examine whether the effects of knowledge on helping behaviors were mediated by attitude toward people living with dementia and the bystander intervention process. RESULTS: The results support the two-step model in which interpreting the situation as one where assistance is required is a prerequisite of helping behavior. Dementia knowledge had a significant total effect on intention to provide help (β = 0.136, p < .001). Interpretation (indirect effect: β = 0.092, p < .001), as well as attitude (indirect effect: β = 0.044, p < .001), was found to completely mediate the effect of dementia knowledge on intention to provide help. DISCUSSION AND IMPLICATIONS: Dementia awareness initiatives designed to promote helping behaviors should focus on knowledge transfer, improving the general public’s attitudes toward people living with dementia, and their ability to interpret when such people need assistance.