Advanced Search

Journal Navigation

Journal Home

Subscriptions

Archive

Contact Us

Table of Contents

Sign In to gain access to subscriptions and/or personal tools.
Journal of Social and Personal Relationships
This Article
Right arrow Full Text (PDF)
Right arrow References
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
Right arrow Email this article to a friend
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Add to Saved Citations
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrowRequest Permissions
Right arrow Request Reprints
Right arrow Add to My Marked Citations
Citing Articles
Right arrow Citing Articles via Google Scholar
Right arrow Citing Articles via Scopus
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Unger, D. G.
Right arrow Articles by Cannon, C.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
Social Bookmarking
Add to CiteULike   Add to Complore   Add to Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us   Add to Digg   Add to Reddit   Add to Technorati   Add to Twitter  
What's this?

Social Support and Marital Satisfaction among Couples Coping with Chronic Constructive Airway Disease

Donald G. Unger

University of Delaware, donald.unger{at}mvs.udel.edu

Sharon B. Jacobs

Associates in Health Psychology

Christine Cannon

University of Delaware

Couples in which one spouse has chronic obstructive airway disease (COAD) face great distress and change over the life course. Couples experience multiple losses and feelings of anxiety, depression and hopelessness, usually beginning in mid-life and continuing into older age. This study explored two sources of social support - family support and friend support - as resources for coping with illness. The relation of family and friend received and provided support with marital satisfaction and the effects of sex and length of marriage were studied. Results indicated that the association between support and marital satisfaction was moderated by the couple's length of marriage, the sex of patients and spouses, and the degree of congruency between husbands' and wives' evaluations of their marital satisfaction. Support acted as a stress buffer in regard to marital satisfaction only for male spouses and male patients. Implications for theory, research and preventive interventions are discussed.

Key Words: chronic illness • marital satisfaction • social support

Journal of Social and Personal Relationships, Vol. 13, No. 1, 123-142 (1996)
DOI: 10.1177/0265407596131007
Add to CiteULike CiteULike   Add to Complore Complore   Add to Connotea Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us Del.icio.us   Add to Digg Digg   Add to Reddit Reddit   Add to Technorati Technorati   Add to Twitter Twitter    What's this?