Dyadic Coping of Kidney Transplant Recipients and Their Partners: Sex and Role Differences

Abstract

Background: Coping with stressful health issues – e.g., organ transplantation – can affect interpersonal relationships. Objective: The study examines individual and dyadic coping (DC) in kidney transplant recipients and their partners under consideration of sex and role differences. The Dyadic Coping Inventory allows analyzing partners’ perception of their own DC and also of their partner’s behavior and investigating different perspectives with three discrepancy indexes (similarity, perceived similarity, congruence). Methods: Fifty-six kidney transplant recipients and their partners completed self-report questionnaires ( N = 112) on DC, depression, anxiety, and relationship satisfaction. The average age of the patients was 58.1 years and of the partners 57.2 years; 64.3% of the patients were male; time since transplantation was on average 9.7 years. Results: (1) Individual and dyadic functioning: In couples with male patients female caregivers showed higher own supportive DC than the males. In couples with female patients, women reported higher own stress communication, supportive DC, total positive DC and total DC as well as depression compared to men. (2) Regarding the discrepancy indexes, in couples with male patients lower levels of similarity in DC reactions of the couple was associated with higher depression of the males as well as higher anxiety of the females. Moreover, lower comparability of the own DC with partner-perception was correlated with higher depression in males. In couples with female patients, higher comparability was associated with higher DC. Higher DC of the males was associated with lower own anxiety and better similarity in DC reactions. Lower levels of similarity of the male spouse showed correlations with higher depression and anxiety of the females. (3) Sex and role differences occurred. No significant differences between male patients and male partners occurred whereas female patients showed higher own stress communication, supportive DC, common DC, total positive DC, total DC and relationship satisfaction compared to female caregivers (role differences). The same differences were found comparing female with male patients. No differences occurred between male and female caregivers (sex differences). (4) Regarding male’s relationship quality, male’s DC total score and similarity index seem to be important predictors in couples with male patients. Discussion: The results demonstrate the relevance of DC in couples with kidney transplantation and show differences between males and females as well as between patients and partners.

Disability as an Interpersonal Experience: A Systematic Review on Dyadic Challenges and Dyadic Coping When One Partner Has a Chronic Physical or Sensory Impairment

“…These associations also hold in times of heightened stress. Inequity of dyadic coping was associated with more depressive symptoms in couples shortly after the birth of their first child (Meier et al, 2020 ), in couples facing a kidney transplantation (Tkachenko et al, 2019 ), and in patients with a major depressive episode (Meier et al, 2021 ). Couples thus seem to have a continued need for equitable coping contributions of both partners even when factors such as chronically impaired health of one partner challenge balanced coping efforts.…”

The Relationship of Dyadic Coping With Emotional Functioning and Quality of the Relationship in Couples Facing Cancer—A Meta-Analysis

“…These were associated with less functional relationships. In the context created by renal transplant, the dyadic coping of male patients was positively associated with their own satisfaction in the relationship and also with their female partners' satisfaction in the relationship, but the dyadic coping of their female partners was positively associated only with their own satisfaction in their relationship and not also with the satisfaction of the male patients (Tkachenko et al, 2019 ).…”

“…Although there are experimental studies that considered causal relationships in which dyadic coping was involved, they were not mentioned in order not to create ambiguity. Studies have been devised to investigate dyadic coping in the context of different chronic conditions: diabetes (Johnson et al, 2013 ), chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (Meier et al, 2011 ; Vaske et al, 2015 ), kidney transplant (Tkachenko et al, 2019 ), chronic pain (Burri et al, 2017 ) and cancer. It has been shown that in the case of couples facing a diagnosis of breast cancer there is a positive relationship between relational mutuality and common dyadic coping and positive dyadic coping, both for patients and their partners, and also a negative relationship between relational mutuality and the avoidance of dyadic coping, a negative dyadic coping style (Kayser and Acquati, 2019 ).…”

“…One of the most used theoretical frameworks in psychological research in the context of cancer has been the Transactional Model of Stress and Coping proposed by Lazarus and Folkman (1984), in which social support is seen as a way of helping people cope with stress. Following this, research frequently centered on patients (Stark and House, 2000;Massie, 2004;Drageset and Lindstrøm, 2005;Thomsen et al, 2010), with their relatives being seen mainly as sources of support. However, it became clear that the chief source of support for cancer sufferers was frequently their life partners (Kim and Spillers, 2010) and that these people in their turn faced high levels of distress (Jaafar et al, 2014;Heckel et al, 2015), sometimes higher than those experienced by patients (Couper et al, 2006).…”

Association between fatigue and depressive symptoms among kidney transplantation recipients: The mediating role of rumination

“…For most patients with end‐stage renal disease, kidney transplantation is the better kind of treatment choice (Tkachenko, Franke, Peters, Schiffer, & Zimmermann, ). Although patients with kidney transplantation reported postoperative improvements in quality of life, they still have a poorer quality of life than the healthy population (van Sandwijk et al, ) and may not return to normal life and work (Tkachenko et al, ). Kidney transplantation is often viewed as a stressful and adverse event that influences the patients’ well‐being (Hamilton, Caskey, Casula, Inward, & Ben‐Shlomo, ).…”