Details

Autor(en) / Beteiligte

• Parrish, Brendt P

Titel

Emotion transmission in couples coping with breast cancer

Ort / Verlag

ProQuest Dissertations & Theses

Erscheinungsjahr

2014

Quelle

ProQuest Dissertations & Theses A&I

Beschreibungen/Notizen

• The present study is an examination of emotion transmission in couples coping with early stage breast cancer. Emotion transmission is defined as the effect of one person's emotions at one time on a second person's emotions at a later time. Emotion transmission is a central construct for understanding complex, dyadic emotional processes, particularly in the context of stress. However, the existing literature on this phenomenon lacks a thorough examination of several positive and negative emotions using prospective models. We examined the occurrence of emotion transmission, including potential moderators and outcomes of this process, using data provided by 54 female breast cancer patients and their spouses/partners. Patients and their partners provided data approximately one month after surgery (Time 1) and again six months later (Time 2). At both Time 1 and Time 2, patients and their partners completed initial cross-sectional measures. At time 1, patients and their partners completed morning and evening diary measures for 10 consecutive days. Cross-sectional measures assessed demographic information, the personality trait of neuroticism, and relationship quality. Diary measures obtained at Time 1 assessed daily emotions including anger, fear, sadness, joviality, and positive activation; active coping to stress; intimacy; and event sharing/discussing. We applied dyadic multilevel modeling to account for between- and within-person variation for primary analyses evaluating emotion transmission. Additional analyses examined the role of targeted moderators (e.g., neuroticism, coping, and relationship quality) for emotion transmission. Finally, we evaluated whether emotion transmission predicted a change in relationship quality from Time 1 to Time 2. Results indicated that both partners transmitted anger to one another, and patients transmitted joviality to their partners. We also found significant moderator effects for relationship quality, intimacy, and coping. Lastly, fear and joviality emotion transmission at Time 1 predicted greater relationship quality at Time 2.