The psychological well-being of end stage renal disease (ESRD) patients and spouses was investigated from a dyadic perspective. The responses of patients and spouses from five groups of couples--illustrating different points in the progression and treatment of ESRD--were compared both across ESRD groups and between patients and spouses. It was hypothesized that those ESRD groups with the highest levels of illness/treatment intrusiveness, i.e. the two dialysis groups, would exhibit the highest levels of marital role strain and concomitantly the lowest levels of psychological well-being. Despite the fact that the ESRD groups did reflect differences in perceived illness/treatment intrusiveness, no significant differences were found between the ESRD groups, or between patients and spouses, in either marital relations or psychological well-being. However, multiple regression analyses did indicate that marital role strain was a significant predictor of psychological well-being. It explained psychological well-being variance above and beyond demographic, physical health, ESRD group membership and psychological defensiveness considerations. Also, the two dialysis groups evidenced significantly greater correlations between marital role strain and psychological distress than the nondialysis groups. These findings were interpreted as being consistent with a General Systems Theory approach to the conceptualization and treatment of chronic illness.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:LACETR/oai:collectionscanada.gc.ca:QMM.71941 |
| Date | January 1983 |
| Creators | Chowanec, Gregory D. (Gregory Dennis) |
| Publisher | McGill University |
| Source Sets | Library and Archives Canada ETDs Repository / Centre d'archives des thèses électroniques de Bibliothèque et Archives Canada |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Coverage | Doctor of Philosophy (Department of Psychology.) |
| Rights | All items in eScholarship@McGill are protected by copyright with all rights reserved unless otherwise indicated. |
| Relation | alephsysno: 000190446, proquestno: AAINK66687, Theses scanned by UMI/ProQuest. |
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