Assessing distress in couples with cancer: A life cycle view
Abstract
The purpose of this study was to advance a model for assessing the biopsychosocial distress in couples with cancer. The questions addressed in this research were related to examining couples' family life development, factors of the illness context and time phase of the illness, and the degree of distress and strain experienced by cancer patients and their spouses. Specifically, descriptions of the couples' family life cycle stage, selected illness variables, patients' symptom distress and depression, and spouses' depression were analyzed in a three step hierarchical regression model to assess the influence of the ordered variables on the caregiving spouses' perceived impacts of care on their health, schedule, and finances. The findings in this research are that family life development alone does not explain spouses' impacts of care, but is a significant contextual variable illuminating all of the impacts. This finding is most prominent in the impact on schedule. The illness variables of patient functional status and time phase of the illness are found to help explain the impacts of care on spouses' schedule, and serve as significant contextual factors on the impact on finances. Depression in the caregiving spouse accounts for most of the explained variance in the perceived impacts on their health, schedule, and finances. This finding supports the notion that depression is an overriding variable in caregiver burdens. The significant correlations found to exist between the family development and patients' and spouses' depression warrant further consideration of a family life cycle view in assessing distress in couples with cancer. Similar correlations found between the illness context and time phase of illness and other indicators of distress also warrant the further consideration of the illness context for assessing distress in couples with cancer. The results of this research are discussed in terms of implications for intervention and future research.
Degree
Ph.D.
Advisors
Sprenkle, Purdue University.
Subject Area
Families & family life|Personal relationships|Sociology|Psychology|Nursing
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