Spouses’ daily feelings of appreciation and self-reported well-being.

Abstract

Objective Research shows that active support provision is associated with greater well-being for spouses of individuals with chronic conditions. However, not all instances of support may be equally beneficial for spouses' well-being. The theory of communal responsiveness suggests that because spouses' well-being is interdependent, spouses benefit most from providing support when they believe their support increases their partner's happiness and is appreciated. Two studies tested this hypothesis. Methods Study 1 was a 7-day ecological momentary assessment (EMA) study of 73 spouses of persons with dementia (74%) and other conditions. In Study 1 spouses self-reported active help, perceptions of how happy the help made the partner and how much the help improved the partner's well-being, and spouses' positive and negative affect at EMA time points. Study 2 was a 7-day daily assessment study of 43 spouses of persons with chronic pain in which spouses reported their emotional support provision, perceived partner appreciation, and their own physical symptoms. Results Study 1 showed that active help was associated with more positive affect for spouses when the they perceived the help increased their partner's happiness and improved their partner's well-being. Study 2 showed that emotional support provision was associated with fewer spouse reported physical symptoms when perceptions of partner appreciation were high. Conclusion Results suggest that interventions for spouses of individuals with chronic conditions take into account spouses' perceptions of their partners' positive emotional responses. Highlighting the positive consequences of helping may increase spouses' well-being.

Supporting a Spouse With Military Posttraumatic Stress: Daily Associations With Partners’ Affect

“…Although the mechanisms of such associations require additional research, it is possible that providing support to a romantic partner aligns with the well‐established benefits of prosocial behaviors, such as volunteering, buying gifts, and doing random acts of kindness, which have been consistently associated with improved well‐being and health for the person engaging in the behavior (Post, ). In support of this idea, Monin and colleagues () found that when spouses believed that they were increasing their partners’ happiness, the association between support provision and the support‐provider's positive affect was strengthened.…”

“…This study is the first to examine partners’ day‐to‐day experience of providing support to an SM/V with PTSD symptoms. Although prior research using global measures has found support provision to be associated with positive outcomes for the provider (e.g., Monin et al., ), other research documenting feelings of burden in partners of individuals with PTSD symptoms has raised speculations that support provision may be associated with partners’ emotional distress (e.g., Dekel, Goldblatt et al., ; Manguno‐Mire et al., ). Contrary to this latter research, our results indicated that a partner's provision of both instrumental and emotional support was associated with same‐day decreased negative affect and increased positive affect.…”

“…Much less is known about how providing support may be associated with the well‐being of support providers. On one hand, providing support to a spouse has been associated with positive outcomes, such as increased intimacy or feelings of esteem and efficacy related to being helpful (e.g., Monin, Brown, Poulin, & Langa, ; Morelli, Lee, Arnn, & Zaki, ). On the other hand, providing such support has also been associated with negative outcomes, such as psychological distress and even suicidality (e.g., Dekel, Solomon, & Bleich, ; Manguno‐Mire et al., ).…”

“…In addition, overall PTSD symptom severity has been consistently associated with higher levels of distress in romantic partners (Lambert et al., ). However, the presence of severe PTSD symptoms might make providing support to an SM/V feel more meaningful and necessary to the SM/V's partner, thereby reducing the partner's perception of burden (Monin et al., ). Thus, we hypothesized that same‐day and next‐day associations between instrumental support provision and higher negative affect and lower positive affect would be stronger in the context of a higher level of SM/V PTSD symptoms.…”

Neural mechanisms of the link between giving social support and health

“…125 For example, perceiving that one's spouse appreciates the support that they receive moderates the association between giving support and self-reported physical symptoms such that greater perceptions of support effectiveness are associated with less physical symptoms. 126 In a similar vein, being acknowledged for the support one gives, which may increase feelings that one's support was effective, is associated with greater well-being (satisfaction with life). 127 In the other direction, signs that one's support was less effective, as evidenced by the receiver's reactions to the support, do not lead to benefits.…”