Communal Coping in Couples With Health Problems

Abstract

Prior to the 1990s, the predominant view of stress and coping defined stress as occurring when an individual perceives a situation as a challenge, threat, or loss and evaluates her capacity to respond based on her available resources. As an expansion of this intrapersonal perspective, the last 20 years have seen the emergence of two prominent interpersonal perspectives on stress and coping that account for the importance of social relationships in the coping process: the Systemic Transactional Model (STM) of dyadic coping and communal coping. In this article, I outline these two perspectives and highlight their points of convergence and divergence. I propose that one difference between the models is that communal coping involves an explicit focus on a communal or shared appraisal process, in which relationship partners view a problem or stressor as “ours” rather than “yours” or “mine.” I review existing methods for assessing communal coping (e.g., self-report, language use, behavioral observation) across laboratory, intervention, and real-world settings and summarize empirical evidence for the prognostic significance of communal coping for relationship and health functioning. I propose the utility of incorporating measurement of shared appraisal into future research on dyadic coping with stress, because of its potential to impact health through its influence on primary and secondary stress appraisal processes and physiological stress response systems. Finally, I outline biological and behavioral pathways through which communal coping may influence health as directions for future research.

Learning a new way of living together: a qualitative study exploring the relationship changes and intervention needs of patients with cardiovascular disease and their partners

“…Developing shared appraisals of a stressor and (ie, viewing a problem as 'ours' vs 'yours') and then engaging in collaborative problem solving has been described as a process of communal coping. 43 Burgeoning evidence indicates that these shared appraisals may facilitate better adjustment to chronic illness and improve health behaviours. 44 In contrast, many of the patient participants described distancing themselves from their partners in an attempt to protect their partner from distress or worry.…”

Couples Adjusting to Multimorbidity: A Dyadic Study on Disclosure and Adjustment Disorder Symptoms

“…The interpersonal perspective on coping processes when adjusting to morbidity has yielded increasing support in the field (Berg and Upchurch, 2007; Kayser et al, 2007; Helgeson et al, 2018; Rentscher, 2019). Many of these views refer to interpersonal ways of coping as “communal coping.” In many theoretical propositions, the importance of shared appraisals regarding the situation has been underlined (Helgeson et al, 2018; Rentscher, 2019), such as a construal of the disease as we disease. This is in line with suggestions by other researchers pointing to the importance of the perception of the disease as a shared, yet commonly manageable, problem (Kayser et al, 2007).…”

Communal coping: A multi-method approach with links to relationships and health

“…In sum, communal coping has been measured in a variety of ways, some of which distinguish the two components and some of which do not. Recent research highlights the importance and need to further explore whether the appraisal and collaboration components can be distinguished (Rentscher, 2019). We used a latent variable approach to capitalize on our multiple measures of appraisal and collaboration and to determine if we could empirically distinguish between the two components of communal coping.…”