title: Relationship status and quality moderate daily pain-related changes in physical disability, affect, and cognitions in women with chronic pain.
abstract: The objectives of this study were to examine whether (1) daily pain-related changes in physical functioning differed between happily partnered, unhappily partnered, and unpartnered female chronic pain patients, and (2) affect and pain cognitions mediated the partner status effect on pain-related changes in physical functioning. Two hundred fifty-one women with chronic pain due to osteoarthritis and/or fibromyalgia completed 30 daily electronic diaries assessing pain, affect, pain-related cognitions, and physical functioning. Patients living with a romantic partner also completed a modified version of the Locke-Wallace Marital Adjustment Scale to assess relationship satisfaction. Multilevel modeling revealed that patients in satisfying unions showed more adaptive daily pain-related changes in physical functioning, pain coping difficulty, and catastrophizing compared to those in unsatisfying unions and those who were unpartnered. Both partnered groups also showed more adaptive pain-related changes in positive affect compared to the unpartnered group. The impact of relationship status on pain-related changes in physical functioning was partly mediated by the pain cognitions catastrophizing and coping difficulty. These results indicate that happily partnered pain patients show less pain-related physical disability and more adaptive affective and cognitive responses to daily pain changes than do unhappily partnered and unpartnered patients. Living in a happy union may bolster the capacity of patients to sustain a sense of pain coping efficacy during pain episodes, which in turn, minimizes pain-related physical activity limitations.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ, USA.
authors.forename: Shannon Stark
authors.initials: SS
authors.lastname: Taylor
authors.forename: Mary C
authors.initials: MC
authors.lastname: Davis
authors.forename: Alex J
authors.initials: AJ
authors.lastname: Zautra
mesh_terms: D000223:Adaptation, Psychological; D000328:Adult; D000339:Affect; D000368:Aged; D058443:Catastrophization / Q000209:etiology / Q000523:psychology; D059350:Chronic Pain / Q000209:etiology / Q000523:psychology*; D003071:Cognition; D006233:Persons with Disabilities / Q000523:psychology*; D005192:Family Health; D005260:Female; D005356:Fibromyalgia / Q000150:complications / Q000523:psychology; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008499:Medical Records; D008875:Middle Aged; D010003:Osteoarthritis / Q000150:complications / Q000523:psychology; D010147:Pain Measurement; D011788:Quality of Life; D018454:Spouses / Q000523:psychology*