Together Against COVID-19 Concerns: The Role of the Dyadic Coping Process for Partners’ Psychological Well-Being During the Pandemic

Abstract

The situation caused by the 2019 coronavirus disease (COVID-19) has been representing a great source of concern and a challenge to the psychological well-being of many individuals around the world. For couples in particular, this extraordinary rise in concern, combined with the stress posed by the virus containment measures, such as prolonged cohabitation and lack of support networks, may have increased the likelihood of couple problems. At the same time, however, COVID-19 concerns may have been a stimulus to activate couples’ stress management processes. A couple’s resource, which may have an important role in dealing with COVID-19 concerns and stress, is dyadic coping, i.e., the process through which partners face stress together. Drawing on a sample of 1,823 Italian individuals involved in a couple relationship, the current study tested a serial mediation model in which concerns about COVID-19 predicted psychological well-being, through both explicit stress communication and perceived partner dyadic coping responses. In addition, the study explored whether this dyadic coping process functioned the same way in satisfied and dissatisfied couples. Results showed that concerns about the situation related to COVID-19 significantly threatened individuals’ psychological well-being. However, these concerns positively predicted explicit stress communication, which in turn positively predicted perceived partner’s dyadic coping responses, which finally positively predicted psychological well-being. In addition, in the group of dissatisfied individuals, the association between explicit stress communication and perceived partners’ dyadic coping responses was not significant. The present study adds to the research on couples’ coping by testing for the first time the whole theoretical model of dyadic coping and does so during a global emergency situation. The study also suggests key components of preventive interventions for individuals in couples.

Teachers’ mental health during the first two waves of the COVID-19 pandemic in Poland

“…The imposed isolation has created an opportunity for the families to spend more time together, and, at the same time, provide mutual support [ 67 , 68 ], which helps their members to effectively manage stress [ 69 , 70 ]. This unique situation might also contribute to the increase of experienced stress caused by distance education.…”

“…In such a situation, teachers can get limited social support. Staying together with their family at home all the time may evoke negative communicative behaviors in the dyad, resulting in the deterioration of the relationship quality [ 67 , 72 – 74 ], lack of satisfaction from the relationship, and as a consequence lowered psychological well-being [ 69 ]. The stress related to child-rearing could be amplified by depression and anxiety symptoms and stress induced by the pandemic [ 75 ].…”

Enduring COVID-19 Lockdowns: Risk versus Resilience in Parents’ Health and Family Functioning Across the Pandemic

“…Finally, tests of protective factors also provided some evidence that within-couple processes may promote resilience within lockdowns. Consistent with research in the early stages of the pandemic, greater partner support during lockdowns was associated with better psychological and physical health, enhanced couple and family functioning, and more positive parenting outcomes (e.g., Donato et al, 2021;McRae et al, 2021;Ogan et al, 2021;Randall et al, 2021). Beyond these main effects, however, partner support only buffered average declines in couple and family functioning (three of five tests), but not in health (one of four tests), across the lockdowns.…”

“…Accordingly, support is theorized to be critical in helping couples sustain relationships during the pandemic and has been a key focus of pandemic-related research. Providing initial evidence that partner support may help parents remain resilient, perceived partner support protected against psychological distress and predicted better couple and parenting outcomes during the early months of the pandemic (e.g., Brown et al, 2020;Donato et al, 2021;Holmstrom et al, 2021;McRae et al, 2021;Ogan et al, 2021;Randall et al, 2021). We extend these initial findings by testing whether perceived support reduced the risk and helped sustain resilience in health and couple/family functioning across the first 1.5 years of the pandemic (from Lockdown 2020 to 2021).…”

Understanding relational resilience of married adults in quarantine days

“…In these situations, decrease in relational resilience is something to be expected. Couples' dyadic coping competences are a way to enhance partners' ability to deal with the stress and concerns related to the epidemic (Donato et al, 2021). In literature, results reveal that dyadic coping is related to relationship satisfaction.…”