Open AccessDaily Spousal Responsiveness Predicts Longer-Term Trajectories of Patients’ Physical Function
Author(s) -
Stephanie J. Wilson,
Lynn M. Martire,
Martin J. Sliwinski
Publication year - 2017
Publication title -
psychological science
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 3.641
H-Index - 260
eISSN - 1467-9280
pISSN - 0956-7976
DOI - 10.1177/0956797617697444
Subject(s) - psychology , operationalization , interpersonal communication , function (biology) , developmental psychology , interpersonal relationship , experience sampling method , everyday life , expression (computer science) , term (time) , osteoarthritis , clinical psychology , social psychology , medicine , alternative medicine , pathology , law , biology , programming language , philosophy , physics , epistemology , quantum mechanics , evolutionary biology , political science , computer science
Everyday interpersonal experiences may underlie the well-established link between close relationships and physical health, but multiple-timescale designs necessary for strong conclusions about temporal sequence are rarely used. The current study of 145 patients with knee osteoarthritis and their spouses focused on a novel pattern in everyday interactions, daily spousal responsiveness-the degree to which spouses' responses are calibrated to changes in patients' everyday verbal expression of pain. Using couple-level slopes, multilevel latent-variable growth models tested associations between three types of daily spousal responsiveness (empathic, solicitous, and punishing responsiveness), as measured during a 3-week experience-sampling study, and change in patients' physical function across 18 months. As predicted, patients whose spouses were more empathically responsive to their pain expression showed better physical function over time compared with those whose spouses were less empathically responsive. This study points to daily responsiveness, a theoretically rooted operationalization of spousal sensitivity, as important for long-term changes in patients' objective physical function.