Spousal understanding and marital satisfaction in pain patients and their spouses

Abstract

The current study tested the hypotheses that knee osteoarthritis (OA) patients and spouses who report more spousal understanding of patient's pain would report greater marital satisfaction. A total of 124 couples completed interviews at three time points across 18 months. Results from dyadic analyses showed that patients who felt more understood by their spouse report, and have spouses who report, higher marital satisfaction concurrently. In addition, patients who felt more understood by their spouse reported higher marital satisfaction over time. Spouses' reports of understanding also had a significant influence on the patients' and their own marital satisfaction concurrently. Results highlight the importance of spouses understanding knee OA patients' pain for both dyad members' marital satisfaction.

Taking stock of the longitudinal study of romantic couple relationships: The last 20 years

“…On days when patients and partners perceived greater responsiveness after self‐disclosing, they each felt more intimate and reported lower negative affect (Otto et al, 2015). Osteoarthritis patients who felt their partners understood their pain had higher relationship satisfaction over time, and when partners reported understanding patients' pain concerns, relationship satisfaction for both partners was higher (Tate et al, 2019). Although osteoarthritis patients' satisfaction was higher on days when their partners overestimated osteoarthritis pain, the partners had greater tension (Wilson et al, 2019).…”

“…Finally, several articles also examined links between relationship quality and health among couples with various chronic illnesses, including osteoarthritis (Tate et al, 2019;Wilson et al, 2019), breast cancer (Manne et al, 2007), and diabetes (Iida et al, 2010(Iida et al, , 2013. Patients and partners who did not disclose health-related concerns had lower relationship satisfaction, greater depressive symptoms (Zhaoyang et al, 2018), and greater distress (Manne et al, 2007) than those who disclosed more.…”

Marriage satisfaction in early adult women in long distance marriage

“…Understanding is the comprehension of a married couple with various conditions by understanding each other. Understanding is an aspect of fulfilling marriage satisfaction, especially in women (Ayub & Iqbal, 2012), in line with the research of Tate et al (2019) that understanding in marriage partners can increase marriage satisfaction. Our findings indicate that building understanding can be achieved by accepting the challenges of a longdistance marriage and demonstrating a willingness to comprehend the individual differences in each partner's characteristics.…”

Dyadic, biobehavioral, and sociocultural approaches to romantic relationships and health: Implications for research, practice, and policy

“…Dyadic health effects can influence clinical disease outcomes, including osteoarthritis (Tate et al., 2019; Wilson, Martire, et al., 2017; Zhaoyang et al., 2018), breast cancer (Manne et al., 2007; Otto et al., 2015), diabetes (Iida et al., 2010, 2013), and heart disease (Tulloch et al., 2021). In a sample of primarily white mixed‐gender couples, when partners of people with arthritis showed more confidence in patient illness management or greater empathy toward patient pain, patients had better physical function, greater physical activity, and less symptom severity over time (Gere et al., 2014; Hemphill et al., 2016).…”