UNDERSTANDING DIFFERENCES IN PAIN-RELATED SUPPORT: COMPARING ATTACHMENT THEORY AND THE COMMUNAL COPING MODEL OF PAIN CATASTROPHIZING
Date
2018-11-15
Authors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
ORCID
0000-0001-7585-5933
Type
Thesis
Degree Level
Doctoral
Abstract
There has been a growing interest in interpersonal factors and/or processes that are relevant to the experience of pain. The communal coping model of pain catastrophizing (CCM; Sullivan et al., 2001) is one of the most prominent theoretical frameworks for investigating the interpersonal aspects of chronic pain. However, attachment theory (Bowlby, 1969) has also emerged as a promising conceptual framework for examining the social aspects of the pain experience (Porter, Davis, & Keefe, 2007). The primary goal of the current research was to compare these conceptual frameworks in terms of their potential for studying and understanding pain-related interpersonal processes. This was achieved by comparing the strengths of the relationships between self-report variables capturing constructs thought to be involved in the development and maintenance of chronic pain (i.e., desire for solicitous support and solicitous support received) and variables relevant to both attachment theory (i.e., attachment anxiety and avoidance) and the CCM (i.e., pain catastrophizing). In order to examine these relationships in both the context of non-chronic and chronic pain, two studies were conducted. Study 1 recruited a non-clinical sample of romantic couples (N = 164), while Study 2 utilized a clinical sample of individuals in a relationship (N = 147) attending a pain clinic.
In comparison to pain catastrophizing, the attachment variables were more strongly associated with all of the solicitous support variables in Study 1 and Study 2. Inconsistent with expectations, attachment anxiety was not consistently related to the desire for solicitous pain-related support or to receiving it, whereas attachment avoidance was consistently related to a relatively lower level of interest in receiving this form of support and to receiving relatively less of this type of support. Pain catastrophizing was less consistently related to the dependent variables. Amongst those not experiencing chronic pain (i.e., Study 1 participants), pain catastrophizing was related to the desire for solicitous support and unrelated to receiving this type of support. Conversely, amongst those with chronic pain (i.e., Study 2 participants), pain catastrophizing was unrelated to the desire for solicitous support but was associated with reports of receiving less of this type of support. The current research highlights the potential of attachment theory, relative to another more frequently investigated theory (i.e., the CCM), for understanding interpersonal variables and processes related to the experience of pain.
Description
Keywords
interpersonal pain-related support, attachment theory, communal coping model of pain catastrophizing
Citation
Degree
Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.)
Department
Psychology
Program
Psychology