Spousal support and cardiac patients' distress: The moderating role of attachment orientation.

Abstract

Based on the Person-Environment Fit Model, the current prospective study explored the contribution of the interaction between spouses' ways of providing support and patients' attachment orientations to the patients' levels of psychological distress 6 months after experiencing a first Acute Coronary Syndrome (ACS). One hundred and eleven patients completed a measure of attachment orientations during hospitalization, while their spouses completed a measure of ways of providing support 1 month later. The outcome measures were patients' depressive and anxiety symptoms 6 months after their ACS. Whereas active engagement was associated with lower levels of anxiety symptoms among patients high in attachment anxiety, it was also associated with higher levels of anxiety symptoms among patients low on this orientation. In addition, none of the ways of providing support moderated the association between avoidance and distress. These results shed light on the possible interplay between providers' support and recipients' personalities.

Engaged patients, engaged partnerships: singles and partners dealing with an acute cardiac event

“…In particular, only a handful of studies investigated the role of women as cardiac patients (Arenhall et al, 2011;Lemos et al, 2003;Vilchinsky et al, 2011), while many studies presented data from women as partners of cardiac patients (e.g. Thompson & Cordle, 1988;Vilchinsky et al, 2010). In general, it seemed that women presented higher risk factors as both patients and partners , but further research is needed to better understand the experience of female patients.…”

Personality Makes a Difference: Attachment Orientation Moderates Theory of Planned Behavior Prediction of Cardiac Medication Adherence

“…Accordingly, it was found that providing support after a cardiac event reduced anxiety symptoms 6 months after the event among highly anxiously attached patients (compared to those low on anxious attachment), but did not affect anxiety symptoms among highly avoidant individuals (Vilchinsky et al, ). In another study, it was found that patients' illness perceptions predicted emotional outcomes following a cardiac event, but only among highly avoidant individuals compared to individuals low on avoidance attachment (Vilchinsky, Dekel, Asher, Leibowitz, & Mosseri, ).…”

Attachment and social support in romantic dyads: A systematic review

“…Regarding recipients with an anxious attachment, relationship satisfaction has been shown to increase with responsive support (Gosnell & Gable, ), and two studies reported a reduction in distress levels following support attempts (Kordahji, Bar‐Kalifa, & Rafaeli, ). However, individuals with an anxious attachment typically displayed less favorable responses to support, deriving no health benefits from perceiving high levels of support (Davila & Kashy, ; McClure et al, ; Meuwly et al, ; Reizer et al, ; Stanton & Campbell, ; Vilchinsky et al, ). Support comprising aggressive humor was also shown to reduce mood in anxiously attached recipients (Howland & Simpson, ).…”

“…This could be due to their comfortableness with intimacy, making them open to receiving support from others, even from partners with an insecure attachment. Individuals with an avoidant attachment who received support displayed negative outcomes (Simpson et al, 2007), such as increased depressed mood (Girme, Overall, Simpson, & Fletcher, 2015) or anxiety (Conde et al, 2011), whereas on other occasions attachment avoidance had no effect on support recipient's anxiety, depression (McClure et al, 2014;Meuwly et al, 2012;Vilchinsky et al, 2010), or relationship satisfaction (Davila & Kashy, 2009). The frequency of support may explain this inconsistency because individuals with an avoidant attachment showed a reduction in levels of distress after receiving above average levels of emotional support (Girme et al, 2015) while reporting a decline in relationship satisfaction after receiving low levels of support (Reizer et al, 2014).…”