• Shannon Stark Taylor, Mary C Davis, and Alex J Zautra.
• Department of Psychology, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ, USA.
• Pain. 2013 Jan 1; 154 (1): 147153147-153.

AbstractThe objectives of this study were to examine whether (1) daily pain-related changes in physical functioning differed between happily partnered, unhappily partnered, and unpartnered female chronic pain patients, and (2) affect and pain cognitions mediated the partner status effect on pain-related changes in physical functioning. Two hundred fifty-one women with chronic pain due to osteoarthritis and/or fibromyalgia completed 30 daily electronic diaries assessing pain, affect, pain-related cognitions, and physical functioning. Patients living with a romantic partner also completed a modified version of the Locke-Wallace Marital Adjustment Scale to assess relationship satisfaction. Multilevel modeling revealed that patients in satisfying unions showed more adaptive daily pain-related changes in physical functioning, pain coping difficulty, and catastrophizing compared to those in unsatisfying unions and those who were unpartnered. Both partnered groups also showed more adaptive pain-related changes in positive affect compared to the unpartnered group. The impact of relationship status on pain-related changes in physical functioning was partly mediated by the pain cognitions catastrophizing and coping difficulty. These results indicate that happily partnered pain patients show less pain-related physical disability and more adaptive affective and cognitive responses to daily pain changes than do unhappily partnered and unpartnered patients. Living in a happy union may bolster the capacity of patients to sustain a sense of pain coping efficacy during pain episodes, which in turn, minimizes pain-related physical activity limitations.Copyright © 2012 International Association for the Study of Pain. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

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