Attachment toward the informal caregiver and perception of the amount of support received after elective surgery

Abstract

This study investigated the relationship between attachment representations and help received from informal caregivers after elective surgery. In total, 98 respondents reported on their attachment toward their informal caregiver before surgery and on the amount of help they received from the caregiver after surgery. We found that anxious attachment was negatively related to all types of support except for ensuring and explaining medical care, whereas avoidant attachment was negatively related to emotional types of support. This study extends previous findings by demonstrating the influence of attachment representations on help received in the context of the unique help provided after elective surgery.

Two is a perfect number: Patient–doctor relationship and patient attachment style in palliative care

“…The continuity of attachment pattern from childhood to adulthood was subjected to debate (Bartholomew and Horowitz, 1991; Collins, 1996; Fraley, 2002; Fraley and Roberts, 2005; Fraley and Shaver, 2000; Lewis et al, 2000; Mikulincer and Shaver, 2007; Pierce et al, 1992; Rothbard and Shaver, 1994; Troy and Sroufe, 1987; Zimmermann et al, 1997). That notwithstanding, Bowlby’s idea of attachment was investigated in adults in reference to variables such as different sociodemographic parameters (Adamczyk and Bookwala, 2013; Bartholomew and Horowitz, 1991; Fraley and Davis, 1997; Fraley and Shaver, 1998; Harms, 2011; Hazan and Shaver, 1987; Zeifman and Hazan, 2008), health condition (McWilliams and Bailey, 2010), health practices (Davis et al, 2015), eating habits (Faber and Dubé, 2015), and disorders (Pace et al, 2016), in pregnant women (Sabuncuoglu and Basgul, 2014), medical patients in general (Cassedy et al, 2015; Ciechanowski et al, 2002; Maunder and Hunter, 2009), or with medically unexplained symptoms (Ciechanowski et al, 2002; Schroeter et al, 2015), in anxious (Alberts and Hadijstavropoulos, 2014) or difficult patients (Taylor et al, 2000), diabetics (Ciechanowski and Katon, 2006), post-surgery (Gur-Yaish et al, 2014), and cancer patients (Clark et al, 2011; Hinnen et al, 2014; Holwerda et al, 2013; Klest and Philippon, 2016; Lo et al, 2009; Mack et al, 2009). Sirois and Gick (2014) pointed out that attachment style might be crucial in patients who have chronic arthritis and by the same token are subjected to physical and emotional suffering which triggers their social, attachment behavior.…”

Psychological distress and loneliness in caregiver of advanced oncological inpatients

“…In the literature, there are a lot of studies assessing caregivers with cancer patients including quality of life, and well-being of caregivers both in Turkey and other countries (Demirtepe-saygili and Bozo, 2011; Ferrell et al, 2013). Moreover, some researchers evaluated relationship between optimism, social support, and quality of life in a sample of caregivers (Brand et al, 2016) and attachment representations and help received from informal caregivers (Gur-Yaish et al, 2016). However, only a small portion of these studies assess the distress experienced by caregivers of cancer patients, and most of these focus more on caregiver-related factors for example gender (Langer, 2003) and their personal role (Cipolletta et al, 2013) and age (Dumont et al, 2006) than patient-related factors.…”

Efficacy of an Attachment-Based Intervention Model on Health Indices in Children with Chronic Disease and Their Mothers

“…Conversely, avoidant individuals tend to deactivate the attachment system, to suppress their attachment needs and perceived negative emotions and are, therefore, less likely to use social supports or medical staff for stress relief. However, their behaviors, which might include underreporting symptoms and resisting medical interventions, interfere with treatment (also in Gur-Yaish et al 2016 ; Klest and Philippon 2016 ; Cassedy et al 2015 ).…”