Perceptions of coach-athlete relationship are more important to coaches than athletes in predicting dyadic coping and stress appraisals: An actor-partner independence mediation model

Most attempts to manage stress involve at least one other person, yet coping studies in sport tend to report an athlete’s individual coping strategies. There is a limited understanding of coping involving other people, particularly within sport, despite athletes potentially spending a lot of time with other people, such as their coach. Guided by the systemic-transactional model of stress and coping among couples (Bodenmann, 1995), from relationship psychology, we assessed dyadic coping, perceptions of relationship quality, and primary stress appraisals of challenge and threat among 158 coach–athlete dyads (n D 277 participants). The athletes competed at amateur (n D 123), semiprofessional (n D 31), or professional levels (n D 4). Coaches and athletes from the same dyad completed a measure of dyadic coping, coach–athlete relationship, and stress appraisals. We tested an Actor–Partner Interdependence Mediation Model to account for the non-independence of dyadic data. These actor–partner analyses revealed differences between athletes and coaches. Although the actor effects were relatively large compared to partner effects, perceptions of relationship quality demonstrated little impact on athletes. The mediating role of relationship quality was broadly as important as dyadic coping for coaches. These findings provide an insight in to how coach–athlete dyads interact to manage stress and indicate that relationship quality is of particular importance for coaches, but less important for athletes. In order to improve perceptions of relationship quality among coaches and athletes, interventions could be developed to foster positive dyadic coping among both coaches and athletes, which may also impact upon stress appraisals of challenge and threat

The antecedents and outcomes of dyadic coping in close personal relationships: a systematic review and narrative synthesis.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Theories of dyadic coping and empirical literature have intermittently and inconsistently highlighted antecedents and outcomes of dyadic coping. The purpose of this review was to systematically identify the antecedents and outcomes of dyadic coping in close personal relationships. DESIGN: A PRISMA-guided systematic review and narrative synthesis. METHODS: Literature searches were conducted using CINAHL, PubMed, PsycINFO, and citation pearl growing to identify studies that were relevant to the aim of the review. The search strategy and exclusion criteria led to a final sample of 46 studies that each highlighted antecedents and outcomes of dyadic coping among married couples. Each study was critically appraised and analyzed using narrative synthesis. RESULTS: The narrative synthesis highlighted five antecedents (learning, gender, relationship characteristics, relationship role, and cultural influences) and two outcomes (relationship functioning and personal health) of dyadic coping. CONCLUSION: The review exposes inconsistencies in the conceptualization of dyadic coping, highlights a range of antecedents that influence dyadic coping, and suggests that dyadic coping can have positive benefits for relationship functioning and personal health. The findings have implications for future research and practice (e.g. when working with couples to improve relationship functioning)

Differences in Individual and Dyadic Coping Among Low and High Depressed, Partially Remitted, and Nondepressed Persons

Investigations of the individual and interpersonal coping resources of depressed persons are underrepresented in the field of research on depression. Whereas some studies have been conducted on depressed couples evaluating individual coping or social support from others, only a few studies have addressed the topic of dyadic coping, or the way both partners cope together. In the present effort, male and female participants with a current or past diagnosis of depression, all of whom were married or cohabiting in a close relationship, reported on their individual and dyadic coping and were compared on these variables with a matched group of control participants. Results corroborate previous findings on deficits in individual coping, and to a lesser degree in dyadic copin

Dyadic Coping Among Couples with COPD: A Pilot Study

COPD (chronic obstructive pulmonary disease) is associated with psychological distress for patients as well as their partners. Dyadic coping can be negatively impacted by stressors. This study's objective was to compare the dyadic coping of couples in which one partner suffered from COPD with healthy couples of the same age. A total of 43 complete couples with COPD and 138 healthy couples participated in this pilot study. The surveys were sent by mail. The response rate of the COPD sample was 24.3%. In order to analyze the effect of gender and role (patient vs. partner) on dyadic coping, linear mixed models were calculated. To analyze the effect of gender and group (COPD group vs. normative comparison group) on dyadic coping, two-way analyses of variance were calculated for independent samples. COPD patients and their partners indicated that the patients received more support and were less able to provide support to their partners. This difference was also evident in comparison with the normative comparison group. In addition, couples with COPD perceived higher levels of negative coping and provided a considerably lower assessment of their positive dyadic coping. The dyadic coping of couples with COPD is unbalanced and more negative when compared to that of healthy couples. Interventions aimed at supporting COPD couples should seek to improve couples' dyadic coping in addition to individual coping strategie

Dyadic adjustment, family coping, body image, quality of life and psychological morbidity in patients with psoriasis and their partners

Background Psoriasis is an incurable and chronic disease that includes unpredictable periods of remission and relapse requiring long-term therapy. Purpose This paper focuses on the relationship among family coping, psychological morbidity, body image, dyadic adjustment and quality of life in psoriatic patients and their partners. Method One hundred and one patients with psoriasis and 78 partners comprised the sample. They were regular users of the Dermatology Service of a Central Northern hospital in Portugal and a private dermatology clinic. Patients with psoriasis were assessed on anxiety, depression, body image, quality of life, dyadic adjustment and family coping. Partners were assessed on the same measures except body image and quality of life. Results A positive relationship among dyadic adjustment, psychological morbidity and family coping in patients and their partners was found. Also, patients with lower levels of quality of life had partners with higher levels of depressive and anxious symptoms. Better dyadic adjustment predicted family coping in the psoriatic patient. High levels of dyadic adjustment in patients and low partners’ trait anxiety predicted better dyadic adjustment in partners. Conclusion The results highlight the importance of incorporating family variables in psychological interventions in psoriasis’ care, particularly family coping and dyadic adjustment as well as the need for psychological intervention to focus both on patients and partners

Response through the Intentional Arc: Merleau-Ponty, Dreyfus and Second Language Acquisition

Language, when considered as part of the lived experience of human beings, fails to be reduced to mere representation. In line with non-representationalist understandings of the mind and knowledge-how centered understandings of knowledge, purposiveness in skill acquisition and second language acquisition may be understood through Dreyfus’s skillful coping, based in Merleau-Ponty’s intentional arc and maximal grip. Such an approach to second language acquisition decentralizes rule-based representationalist understandings of the process, such as universal grammar, and instead sees language and communication as responsive, dynamic and dyadic

Managing behavioural and psychological symptoms in community dwelling older people with dementia:1. A systematic review of the effectiveness of interventions

© 2018 The Author(s) This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution licence CC BY 4.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.Background: Two-thirds of people living with dementia live at home in the UK and many experience distressing behavioural and psychological symptoms. This systematic review evaluates the effectiveness of non-pharmacological interventions for behavioural and psychological symptoms among community-dwelling people living with dementia. Methods: This two-stage review undertook an initial mapping of the literature followed by a systematic review of relevant randomised controlled trials. We searched electronic databases for pertinent studies reporting outcomes from interventions from January 2000 to March 2015 and updated searches in October 2016. We included studies that considered behavioural and psychological symptom management for older people living with dementia who live at home and excluded studies conducted in long-term care settings. This paper presents findings from a narrative synthesis of 48 randomised controlled trials evaluating interventions for people living with dementia alone, family carers alone and patient-carer dyads. Results: We retrieved 17,871 de-duplicated records and screened them for potential inclusion. Evidence from 48 randomised controlled trials suggests that family carer training and educational programmes that target problem behaviours and potential triggers can improve outcomes. Nurses and occupational therapists appear to help people with dementia with behavioural and psychological symptoms, but professional comparisons are lacking and there is no shared language about or understanding of behavioural and psychological symptoms amongst professionals, or between professionals and family carers. Conclusions: Future research should focus on the effectiveness of components of multi-faceted programmes and their cost effectiveness and include qualitative data to better target interventions for behavioural and psychological symptoms. It is important to consider family carer readiness to use non-pharmacological strategies and to develop a shared language about the inherent needs and communications of behavioural and psychological symptoms.Peer reviewe

Evaluating emotional distress and health-related quality of life in patients with heart failure and their family caregivers:Testing dyadic dynamics using the Actor-Partner Interdependence Model

Purpose: 1) To compare levels of emotional symptoms and health-related quality of life between patients with heart failure and their family caregivers; and 2) to examine whether patients’ and caregivers’ emotional symptoms were associated with their own, as well as their partner’s health-related quality of life. Method: In this cross-sectional study, 41 patients-caregiver dyads (78% male patients, aged 68.6 years; and 83% female caregivers, aged 65.8 years) completed all nine dimensions of the Brief Symptom Inventory and the Minnesota Living with Heart failure Questionnaire. Dyadic data were analysed for 6 sub-scales of the Brief Symptom Inventory, using the Actor–Partner Interdependence Model. Results: There were no statistically significant differences in emotional symptoms and health-related quality of life between patients with heart failure and their caregivers. Patients’ and caregivers’ emotional symptoms were associated with their own health-related quality of life. Caregivers’ anxiety, phobic anxiety, obsession-compulsion, depression and hostility negatively influenced their partner’s (i.e. the patient’s) health-related quality of life. There were no partner effects of patients’ emotional symptoms on the health-related quality of life of caregivers. Conclusions: The results of this study suggest that patients may be particularly vulnerable to the emotional distress, i.e. thoughts, impulses and actions of their caregivers. It may be possible to improve patients’ health-related quality of life by targeting specific detrimental emotional symptoms of caregivers

Support-seeking, support-provision and support-perception in distressed married couples : a multi-method analysis

An emerging consensus argues for the importance of spousal support in our understanding of how relationships succeed or fail. This report covers two studies that examined support seeking, support provision and support perception in distressed married couples. In Study 1 a total of seventy distressed and seventy non-distressed couples participated in a survey study; in Study 2 twenty distressed and twenty non-distressed couples participated in an observational study. Global self-reports were used in both studies to assess spouses' support behaviour and perceived support. These measures were supplemented in Study 2 with measures of observed support behaviour and interaction-based perceived support as assessed during specific support interactions. Our self-report and observational measures consistently indicated that distressed marital couples display lower levels of positive support-seeking and emotional or instrumental support provision than non-distressed couples. We also found evidence for higher levels of negative support-seeking and provision behaviour in distressed couples, as compared to non-distressed couples. Distressed spouses also reported lower levels of global and interaction-based perceived support than non-distressed spouses