Dyadic Coping Across the Lifespan: A Comparison Between Younger and Middle-Aged Couples With Breast Cancer

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Abstract

The association between dyadic coping and adjustment to cancer has been well-established. However, a significant gap in the literature is the understanding of how the life stage of couples may influence their dyadic coping and the accompanying quality of life. Although younger couples have been identified at higher risk for poor coping because of less collaborative behaviors and higher vulnerability to stress, only a limited number of studies have addressed younger women's coping with breast cancer in the context of close relationships. The present study addressed the differential impact of the illness on the quality of life and dyadic coping behaviors of younger and middle-aged dyads and the influence of relational mutuality on couples' coping in the two groups. A sample of 86 couples participated in a cross-sectional study; 35 younger couples were compared to 51 middle-aged dyads. Patients and partners completed measures of quality of life, dyadic coping, and mutuality. Independent-samples t-tests were used to examine differences in the two groups, while the Actor-Partner Interdependence Model (APIM) identified actor and partner effects of relational mutuality on dyadic coping. Younger women and their partners reported statistically significant worse quality of life and dyadic coping scores than the middle-age group. For younger couples, positive and negative coping styles were the result of both actor and partner effects of mutuality. The study highlighted the more negative impact of breast cancer on the quality of life of younger patients and partners. It also revealed a stronger influence of each partner's relational mutuality compared to the middle-age group in predicting both adaptive and maladaptive coping behavior. Future studies should continue to examine the developmental trajectory of dyadic coping across the lifespan in order to develop psychosocial interventions to promote younger dyads' coping efforts.

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The Functional Assessment of Chronic Illness Therapy (FACIT) Measurement System: properties, applications, and interpretation

Kimberly Webster, David Cella, Kathleen Yost (2003)

The Functional Assessment of Chronic Illness Therapy (FACIT) Measurement System is a collection of health-related quality of life (HRQOL) questionnaires targeted to the management of chronic illness. The measurement system, under development since 1987, began with the creation of a generic CORE questionnaire called the Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy-General (FACT-G). The FACT-G (now in Version 4) is a 27-item compilation of general questions divided into four primary QOL domains: Physical Well-Being, Social/Family Well-Being, Emotional Well-Being, and Functional Well-Being. It is appropriate for use with patients with any form of cancer, and extensions of it have been used and validated in other chronic illness condition (e.g., HIV/AIDS; multiple sclerosis; Parkinson's disease; rheumatoid arthritis), and in the general population. The FACIT Measurement System now includes over 400 questions, some of which have been translated into more than 45 languages. Assessment of any one patient is tailored so that the most-relevant questions are asked and administration time for any one assessment is usually less than 15 minutes. This is accomplished both by the use of specific subscales for relevant domains of HRQOL, or computerized adaptive testing (CAT) of selected symptoms and functional areas. FACIT questionnaires can be administered by self-report (paper or computer) or interview (face-to-face or telephone). Available scoring, normative data and information on meaningful change now allow one to interpret results in the context of a growing literature base.

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A developmental-contextual model of couples coping with chronic illness across the adult life span.

Lise Berg, Renn Upchurch (2007)

A developmental-contextual model of couples coping with chronic illness is presented that views chronic illness as affecting the adjustment of both the patient and the spouse such that coping strategies enacted by the patient are examined in relation to those enacted by the spouse, and vice versa. The developmental model emphasizes that dyadic coping may be different at various phases of the life span, changing temporally at different stages of dealing with the illness as well as unfolding daily as spouses interact around dyadic stressors. In addition, couples engaged in dyadic coping are affected by broad sociocultural factors (culture and gender) as well as more proximal contextual factors (quality of the marital relationship and the specific demands of the chronic illness). The model provides a framework for understanding how couples coping with chronic illness may together appraise and cope with illness during adulthood and for determining when spousal involvement is beneficial or harmful to both patient and spousal adjustment. The developmental-contextual model to dyadic appraisal and coping has numerous research implications for the field, and the authors conclude with specific recommendations for future research.

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The role of stress on close relationships and marital satisfaction.

Ashley K. Randall, Guy Bodenmann (2009)

Stress is a concept that has received increased attention in marital research during the last decade, showing that it plays an important role in understanding the quality and stability of close relationships. Evidence suggests that stress is a threat to marital satisfaction and its longevity. Research has been based upon theoretical models of stress in close relationships, specifically family stress models [e.g., Hill, R. (1958). Generic features of families under stress. Social Casework, 39, 139-150.; McCubbin, H. I., & Patterson, J. M. (1983). Family transitions: Adaptation to stress. In H. I. McCubbin & C. R. Figley (Eds.), Stress and the family: Coping with normative transitions (Vol. 2, pp. 5-25). New York: Brunner/Mazel] and couple's stress model's proposed by Karney, Story, and Bradbury [Karney, B. R., Story, L. B., & Bradbury, T. N. (2005). Marriages in context: Interactions between chronic an acute stress among newlyweds. In T. A. Revenson, K. Kayser, & G. Bodenmann (Eds.), Couples coping with stress: Emerging perspectives on dyadic coping (pp.13-32). American Psychological Association: Washington, D.C.] and Bodenmann [Bodenmann, G. (1995). A systemic-transactional conceptualization of stress and coping in couples. Swiss Journal of Psychology, 54, 34-49.; Bodenmann, G. (2005). Dyadic coping and its significant for marital functioning. In T. Revenson, K. Kayser, & G. Bodenmann (Eds.), Couples coping with stress: Emerging perspectives on dyadic coping (pp.33-50). American Psychological Association: Washington, D.C.]. In this review we: (1) examine the various theoretical models of stress, (2) analyze and summarize the typologies relating to stress models (internal versus external, major versus minor, acute versus chronic), and (3) summarize findings from stress research in couples that has practical significance and may inspire clinical work. Future directions in research and clincial significance are suggested.

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Author and article information

Contributors

Chiara Acquati: URI : http://loop.frontiersin.org/people/162271/overview

Karen Kayser: URI : http://loop.frontiersin.org/people/206878/overview

Journal

Journal ID (nlm-ta): Front Psychol

Journal ID (iso-abbrev): Front Psychol

Journal ID (publisher-id): Front. Psychol.

Title: Frontiers in Psychology

Publisher: Frontiers Media S.A.

ISSN (Electronic): 1664-1078

Publication date (Electronic): 19 March 2019

Publication date Collection: 2019

Volume: 10

Electronic Location Identifier: 404

Affiliations

[1] ¹Graduate College of Social Work, University of Houston , Houston, TX, United States

[2] ²Renato LaRocca Chair of Oncology Social Work, Kent School of Social Work, University of Louisville , Louisville, KY, United States

Author notes

Edited by: Guy Bodenmann, University of Zurich, Switzerland

Reviewed by: Nina Rottmann, University of Southern Denmark, Denmark; Miriam Parise, Catholic University of Sacred Heart, Italy

*Correspondence: Chiara Acquati cacquati@ 123456central.uh.edu

This article was submitted to Clinical and Health Psychology, a section of the journal Frontiers in Psychology

Article

DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2019.00404

PMC ID: 6433932

PubMed ID: 30941068

SO-VID: 5b8826ea-73f1-462b-9dcb-8283e2b82c34

License:

This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

History

Date received : 19 June 2018

Date accepted : 11 February 2019

Page count

Figures: 2, Tables: 5, Equations: 0, References: 157, Pages: 18, Words: 14305

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Dyadic Coping Across the Lifespan: A Comparison Between Younger and Middle-Aged Couples With Breast Cancer

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Most cited references 122

The Functional Assessment of Chronic Illness Therapy (FACIT) Measurement System: properties, applications, and interpretation

A developmental-contextual model of couples coping with chronic illness across the adult life span.

The role of stress on close relationships and marital satisfaction.

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