Spouses' Support Provision to Chronically Ill Patients

This study examined: (1) factors that are related to spouses' provision of positive and problematic support to rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients, and (2) the stress-buffering role of support from social ties outside the marriage for spouses of RA patients. Data were drawn from a prospective study of psychological adaptation to RA. The conjugal sample consisted of forty-two RA patients (81 percent female) and their spouses. The results suggest that spouses provided more social support in response to patients' distress, expressed as greater pain and depressed mood. In contrast, spouses provided more problematic support to patients when spouses were experiencing greater stress or when patients' disease was more advanced. Network support received by the spouse served as a stress-buffer against depression for spouses whose partner's illness had become worse over the past 2 years. These findings support the need for studying social support processes using a dyadic, transactional approach, and for studying the patient and spouse within the larger context of their social support network.