Category Archives: Br J Health Psychol

Interpretations of partners’ responses to pain behaviours: Perspectives of patients and partners.






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Interpretations of partners’ responses to pain behaviours: Perspectives of patients and partners.

Br J Health Psychol. 2020 Nov 12;:

Authors: Akbari F, Mohammadi S, Dehghani M, Sanderman R, Hagedoorn M

Abstract
OBJECTIVES: Partner’s responses to pain behaviours play a pivotal role in the patient’s adjustment. This study aims to further our knowledge regarding patients’ and partners’ interpretation of partners’ responses to pain behaviours, and the possible discrepancies between patients’ and partners’ perceptions. Further, this study examines patients’ preferred responses to pain behaviours and possible discrepancies between received and preferred responses to pain behaviours.
DESIGN: A qualitative research design based on a semi-structured in-depth interview.
METHODS: Patients with chronic low back pain and their partners (n = 54) were recruited through purposive sampling and interviewed. Data were analysed based on an inductive analytic approach.
RESULTS: Patients as well as partners indicated a number of different interpretations of partners’ responses to pain behaviours, including invalidation, relieving pain, validation, encouragement, caregiving exhaustion, and expressing resentment. Patients and partners revealed similarities in the interpretation of response categories that they associated with validation, invalidation, and expressing resentment. Discrepancies between patients and partners indicated that partners interpreted some responses as caused by caregiving exhaustion while patients did not. Patients perceived partner responses that included the active involvement of the partner (e.g., encouraging pain talk) more positively than responses that showed less active involvement of the partner.
CONCLUSION: Patients and partners are likely to make various interpretations of a certain partner response to pain behaviours. Our findings underscore that patients’ interpretation about a certain behaviour might determine whether that behaviour is rated as desirable or aversive.

PMID: 33180996 [PubMed – as supplied by publisher]

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Reducing discrepancies of personal goals in the context of cancer: A longitudinal study on the relation with well-being, psychological characteristics, and goal progress.






Reducing discrepancies of personal goals in the context of cancer: A longitudinal study on the relation with well-being, psychological characteristics, and goal progress.

Br J Health Psychol. 2017 Sep 27;:

Authors: Pama MR, Janse M, Sprangers MAG, Fleer J, Ranchor AV

Abstract
OBJECTIVES: To (1) examine whether reducing discrepancies between goal importance and goal attainability is an adaptive predictor of well-being, (2) investigate intrusion, awareness, optimism, and pessimism as determinants of reducing discrepancies between goal importance and goal attainability, and (3) explore how goal progress is involved in reducing discrepancies between goal importance and goal attainability during two major periods after a colorectal cancer diagnosis.
DESIGN: Prospective design.
METHODS: Newly diagnosed colorectal cancer patients (n = 120) were interviewed three times: within a month, 7 months (treatment period), and 18 months (follow-up period) post-diagnosis. Data were analysed using multiple regressions.
RESULTS: Results showed that (1) reducing discrepancies enhances well-being, (2) optimism and pessimism are predictors of reducing discrepancies during the treatment period but not during the follow-up period, while intrusion and awareness do not predict reducing discrepancies in either period, and (3) goal progress is a predictor of reducing discrepancies during the follow-up period, but no evidence for a moderating or mediating role of goal progress in the relation between psychological characteristics and reducing discrepancies was found.
CONCLUSIONS: Reducing discrepancies between goal importance and goal attainability could benefit colorectal cancer patients’ well-being. Optimism, pessimism, and goal progress appear to influence cancer patients’ ability to reduce discrepancies. Providing assistance in improving goal progress to those who are less optimistic and highly pessimistic may be a suitable training for cancer patients to prevent deterioration in well-being. Statement of contribution What is already known on this subject? More discrepancy between goal importance and goal attainability is associated with lower levels of well-being. People are able to change evaluations of importance and attainability, but it is unknown whether this positively impacts well-being. Underlying causes of differences in the extent to which discrepancies between goal importance and goal attainability are reduced are unknown. What does this study add? This is the first study to show that reducing discrepancies between goal importance and goal attainability is beneficial for well-being. This is the first study to show that optimism and pessimism are determinants of reducing discrepancies between goal importance and goal attainability. Goal progress might be an effective target for interventions that aim to facilitate one’s ability to reduce discrepancies between goal importance and goal attainability.

PMID: 28960718 [PubMed – as supplied by publisher]

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People with cancer use goal adjustment strategies in the first 6 months after diagnosis and tell us how.






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People with cancer use goal adjustment strategies in the first 6 months after diagnosis and tell us how.

Br J Health Psychol. 2015 Sep 28;

Authors: Janse M, Ranchor AV, Smink A, Sprangers MA, Fleer J

Abstract
OBJECTIVES: Theory has offered suggestions on how people may adjust their personal goals after goal disturbance or altered life situations. However, the actual use of these goal adjustment strategies has rarely been studied. This study aimed to investigate whether the goal adjustment strategies identified in the literature are used in the first 6 months following a diagnosis of cancer and whether alternative strategies can be identified.
DESIGN: Exploratory design with a qualitative method of data collection.
METHODS: Patients were asked to list their current personal goals within a month after being diagnosed with colorectal cancer. Six months later, they were asked what had happened to each of these goals. For each goal, raters scored whether (1) it was achieved or being pursued as planned, (2) a known strategy was used, or (3) an alternative strategy was used.
RESULTS: Patients with colorectal cancer (n = 130) reported that more than half of their goals had been achieved or were being pursued as planned. The remaining goals (n = 210) required goal adjustment strategies. Patients used five of six known strategies that involved mostly limited adjustment. Additionally, they used combinations of goal adjustment strategies, and two alternative strategies were identified.
CONCLUSIONS: This study found that patients with cancer use goal adjustment strategies, and it provides illustrations on how these strategies are used, thus deepening and extending existing knowledge of and theory on goal adjustment. Future studies should take the newly identified strategies into account as well as the possible use of combinations of strategies. Statement of contribution What is already known on this subject? The successful pursuit of personal goals is important for maintaining well-being. However, an unexpected and serious illness such as cancer can lead to the need to adjust goals, either because they have become difficult or impossible to attain due to physical hindrance of the illness and/or its treatment, or because other goals have become important due to the confrontation with the fragility of life. Theories have proposed options of how people may deal with their personal goals, but whether these so-called goal adjustment strategies are actually used by cancer patients, and whether there are alternative strategies we need to take into account, is still unclear. What does this study add? This study employs a qualitative method of data collection to study what actually happens to cancer patients’ goals during the first 6 months after diagnosis. This study found that almost all goal adjustment strategies from theory are indeed used by cancer patients and that they mostly use strategies which involve only limited adjustment and a continued focus on the original goal. We found that patients with cancer use combinations of strategies and two alternative strategies, thereby complementing and expanding theories on goal adjustment.

PMID: 26412011 [PubMed – as supplied by publisher]

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Great expectations? Pre-transplant quality of life expectations and distress after kidney transplantation: a prospective study.






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Great expectations? Pre-transplant quality of life expectations and distress after kidney transplantation: a prospective study.

Br J Health Psychol. 2014 Nov;19(4):823-38

Authors: Schulz T, Niesing J, Homan van der Heide JJ, Westerhuis R, Ploeg RJ, Ranchor AV

Abstract
OBJECTIVES: Previous research suggests that prior to kidney transplantation, patients overestimate their post-transplant quality of life (QoL). The current study aimed to corroborate these findings, identify determinants of QoL overestimation, examine its association with subsequent distress, and clarify the role of optimism.
DESIGN: Prospective observational study.
METHODS: Physical, psychological, and social QoL expectations, actual QoL, and distress (GHQ-12) of participants (56% male) were prospectively assessed before (T0; n = 228) and 3 (T1; n = 149), 6 (T2; n = 146), and 12 (T3; n = 114) months after successful transplantation.
RESULTS: Patients who were treated with haemodialysis before transplantation reported greater physical QoL overestimation than those who received treatment with peritoneal dialysis. Neither physical nor social QoL overestimation at T1 was prospectively associated with increased distress at T2 or T3. The interaction between optimism and social QoL overestimation at T1 (β = -.56, p < .001) for distress at T2 was significant, with patients low in optimism experiencing more distress after QoL overestimation.
CONCLUSIONS: QoL overestimation is not associated with subsequent distress. Findings suggest that patients low in optimism are more vulnerable to distress following QoL overestimation.
STATEMENT OF CONTRIBUTION: What is already known on this subject? Kidney transplantation improves patients’ quality of life. Prior to kidney transplantation, patients overestimate the scale of this improvement. What does this study add? Quality of life overestimation is not associated with subsequent distress. When optimism is low, kidney transplant recipients experience higher distress following quality of life overestimation.

PMID: 24330416 [PubMed – indexed for MEDLINE]

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Sweet and sour after renal transplantation: a qualitative study about the positive and negative consequences of renal transplantation.






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Sweet and sour after renal transplantation: a qualitative study about the positive and negative consequences of renal transplantation.
Br J Health Psychol. 2014 Sep;19(3):580-91
Authors: Schipper K, … Continue reading

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Dispositional optimism in adolescents with cancer: differential associations of optimism and pessimism with positive and negative aspects of well-being.






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Dispositional optimism in adolescents with cancer: differential associations of optimism and pessimism with positive and negative aspects of well-being.
Br J Health Psychol. 2013 Sep;18(3):474-89
Authors: Sulk… Continue reading

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Psychological distress in couples dealing with colorectal cancer: gender and role differences and intracouple correspondence.






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Psychological distress in couples dealing with colorectal cancer: gender and role differences and intracouple correspondence.
Br J Health Psychol. 2004 Nov;9(Pt 4):465-78
Authors: Tuinstra J, Hagedoorn M, Van S… Continue reading

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Relationship satisfaction in women: a longitudinal case-control study about the role of breast cancer, personal assertiveness, and partners’ relationship-focused coping.






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Relationship satisfaction in women: a longitudinal case-control study about the role of breast cancer, personal assertiveness, and partners’ relationship-focused coping.
Br J Health Psychol. 2008 Nov;13(Pt 4):737-54
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Failing in spousal caregiving: The ‘identity-relevant stress’ hypothesis to explain sex differences in caregiver distress.






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Failing in spousal caregiving: The ‘identity-relevant stress’ hypothesis to explain sex differences in caregiver distress.
Br J Health Psychol. 2002 Nov;7(Part 4):481-494
Authors: Hagedoorn M, Sanderman R, Buun… Continue reading

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Cognitive adaptation: a comparison of cancer patients and healthy references.






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Cognitive adaptation: a comparison of cancer patients and healthy references.
Br J Health Psychol. 2003 Sep;8(Pt 3):303-18
Authors: Stiegelis HE, Hagedoorn M, Sanderman R, van der Zee KI, Buunk BP, van den Berg… Continue reading

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