Chronic pain acceptance and affective well‐being: A coping perspective

Abstract

This study examined the relationship between chronic pain acceptance and affective well-being from a coping perspective. One hundred-fifty patients from a multidisciplinary pain centre provided self-report data including measures of pain acceptance, positive and negative affect, and accommodative flexibility. The bivariate and multiple correlation patterns were consistent with the assumption that pain willingness (the attitudinal component of pain acceptance including the recognition of the uncontrollability of pain) primarily reduces negative affect, whereas activity engagement (the behavioural component of pain acceptance including the pursuit of life activities despite pain) additionally produces positive affect. The data furthermore suggested activity engagement as a mediating link between pain willingness and positive affect. Moderation analyses showed that accommodative flexibility (the general readiness to adjust personal goals to situational constraints) facilitates both pain willingness and activity engagement--especially when average pain intensity is high. In sum, the results support the view that chronic pain patients' well-being is closely tied to the maintenance of life activities which presupposes an accepting attitude towards pain.

Goal pursuit, goal adjustment, and affective well‐being following lower limb amputation

“…Indeed, FGA has consistently stronger associations than TGP with indicators of subjective well-being among individuals with chronic illness and disability (Boerner, 2004;van Lankveld et al, 2011). The accommodative mode has also been found to buffer against the negative emotional impact of potentially deleterious factors such as increasing age (Rothermund & Brandtstädter, 2003), negative life events (Bailly, Joulain, Hervé, & Alaphilippe, 2012), chronic pain (Kranz et al, 2010;Schmitz et al, 1996), and functional impairment, particularly among younger individuals (Boerner, 2004).…”

“…The dual-process model of assimilative and accommodative processes (Brandstädter & Renner, 1990) addresses the dynamics of goal striving across the lifespan and has gained traction in research on adjustment to chronic illness and disability in recent years (Boerner, 2004;Darlington et al, 2009;Kranz, Bollinger, & Nilges, 2010;Schmitz, Saile, & Nilges, 1996;van Lankveld, van Diemen, & van Nes, 2011). This conceptual framework delineates two basic modes of 5 reducing discrepancies between perceived and desired progress towards goal attainment.…”

Cognitive behavior therapy in patients with chronic fatigue syndrome: The role of illness acceptance and neuroticism

“…This way of coping with adversity is more and more acknowledged to be related to a good adjustment to chronic illness [17][18][19][20][21][22]. Its function is also well-articulated in self-regulatory models of coping [23][24][25].One example of such a model is the 'Dual-Process Model of Coping of Brandtstädter and colleagues' [26][27], which distinguishes between two complementary coping strategies: accommodative coping and assimilative coping.…”

Pain Resilience: Issues of Modeling Dynamic Adaptation in Chronic Pain

“…Further, one of the key antecedents to positive emotion is the pursuit of personally-valued goals (Coffey et al, 2014). The literature on pain acceptance, a key adaptive construct in chronic pain that will be detailed later, is also suggestive of this idea; individuals high in chronic pain tend to report a greater willingness to experience pain in service of pursuing their goals, which has been related to fewer negative emotions and greater levels of positive emotion (Kranz, Bollinger, & Nilges, 2010). Notably, however, the role of positive emotions appear to be complex; a recent review of resilience in chronic pain (Hassett & Finan, 2016) has emphasized that the implications of stable and time-varying levels of positive emotion for pain adaptation may be distinct.…”