COPING IN MARITAL DYADS - PATTERNS AND ASSOCIATIONS WITH PSYCHOLOGICAL SYMPTOMS

This study examined data from 153 married couples to determine their patterns of coping with stress and the association between couples' coping and psychological symptoms in each spouse. We investigated whether information about the dyadic pattern of coping added to the understanding of psychological symptoms in husbands and wives beyond that gleaned from examining each partner's coping. Cluster analysis yielded eight distinguishable patterns of dyadic coping. Two of these patterns were associated with high levels of psychological symptoms in one or both spouses. Most notably, a pattern of dyadic coping marked by strong reliance on escape-avoidance coping by both husband and wife was associated with high levels of symptoms in both spouses. In regression analyses, wives' escape-avoidance coping predicted both their own and their husbands' psychological symptoms. Husbands' escape-avoidance coping predicted only their own symptoms.