Kindt Sara, Vansteenkiste Maarten, Loeys Tom, Cano Annmarie, Lauwerier Emelien, Verhofstadt Lesley L, Goubert Liesbet
Departments of Experimental-Clinical and Health Psychology, Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium.
Developmental, Personality and Social Psychology, Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium.
Pain Med. 2015 Sep;16(9):1732-44. doi: 10.1111/pme.12766. Epub 2015 Apr 30.
Self-determination theory (SDT) may be a useful framework to understand why chronic pain affects partners. SDT postulates that individuals can engage in helping behaviors for different motives varying from more autonomous or volitional motives to more controlled or pressured motives. This article examines the relationship between partners' type of motivation to help (i.e., autonomous vs controlled) and their personal and relational functioning. Furthermore, mechanisms underlying this relationship (i.e., helping exhaustion and relationship-based need satisfaction) were examined.
In a sample of 48 couples, of which one partner had chronic pain (36 female patients), questionnaires measuring life satisfaction, positive and negative affect, anxiety and depressive feelings, relationship quality and relationship-based need satisfaction were filled out. Individuals with chronic pain (ICPs) also reported on pain intensity and disability whereas partners were requested to report on motives for helping and helping exhaustion.
Data analysis with Structural Equation Modeling revealed that autonomous, relative to controlled, motives for helping among partners related positively to partners' well-being and relationship quality, and negatively to distress. The experience of helping exhaustion and relationship-based need satisfaction mediated these associations. Moreover, partners' autonomous helping motivation related positively to patient-reported relationship quality among ICPs high in pain intensity.
Applying SDT in a context of pain provides new insights into why chronic pain affects partners and how partners impact patient outcome. Directions for future research are outlined.
自我决定理论（SDT）可能是理解慢性疼痛如何影响伴侣的一个有用框架。自我决定理论假定，个体实施帮助行为的动机各不相同，从更自主或自愿的动机到更受控制或被迫的动机。本文探讨了伴侣帮助动机的类型（即自主型与受控型）与其个人及关系功能之间的关系。此外，还研究了这种关系背后的机制（即帮助倦怠和基于关系的需求满足）。
在48对夫妻的样本中，其中一方患有慢性疼痛（36名女性患者），填写了测量生活满意度、积极和消极情绪、焦虑和抑郁情绪、关系质量以及基于关系的需求满足情况的问卷。慢性疼痛患者（ICPs）还报告了疼痛强度和残疾情况，而伴侣则被要求报告帮助动机和帮助倦怠情况。
结构方程模型的数据分析表明，相对于受控型，伴侣的自主帮助动机与伴侣的幸福感和关系质量呈正相关，与痛苦呈负相关。帮助倦怠的体验和基于关系的需求满足介导了这些关联。此外，在疼痛强度较高的慢性疼痛患者中，伴侣的自主帮助动机与患者报告的关系质量呈正相关。
在疼痛背景下应用自我决定理论为慢性疼痛如何影响伴侣以及伴侣如何影响患者预后提供了新的见解。概述了未来研究的方向。
