Protective buffering and individual and relational adjustment following hematopoietic stem cell transplantation: A dyadic daily-diary study

Abstract

Background: Supportive communication (e.g., protective buffering, PB) may impact individual and relational adjustment in patients following hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT) and their caregivers. Previous studies revealed that PB (i.e., hiding one’s concerns and denying one’s worries) has mixed effects, namely it is beneficial, costly or unrelated to dyadic adjustment. This study aimed to verify these findings by addressing some unresolved issues, i.e., examining (1) both individual and relational as well as both positive and negative indicators of adjustment, (2) the effect of within-dyad congruence (i.e., complementarity/similarity) in PB, and (3) within-dyad causal associations between PB and adjustment. Methods: Two hundred patients (following first autologous or allogeneic HSCT) and their caregivers independently completed measures of daily PB, relationship satisfaction, relationship stress, and positive affect (PA) and negative affect (NA) for 28 consecutive evenings after discharge of patients. Findings: For both patients and caregivers, the results showed a same-day association between daily PB and individual (positive and negative) and relational (positive and negative) adjustment indicators showing the advantage of PB. In terms of the dyad congruence, complementarity (one partner high and the other low) in daily PB was related to higher same-day relationship satisfaction for both patients and caregivers and lower same-day relationship stress in caregivers. The benefits from similarity (both patient and caregiver high or low in PB) had delayed effects, although only in patients. As far as the causal associations were concerned, day-to-day changes in PB preceded changes in daily adjustment. In caregivers, reverse causality was found, i.e., changes in adjustment predicted next-day changes in support. Discussion: Contrary to previous studies, daily PB has a rather beneficial effect in dyads following HSCT. Patients seemed to have benefited the most from the similarity in daily PB fluctuation, while caregivers profited from complementarity. Causal associations between PB and adjustment within-dyad were also different. The findings may add to a better understanding of PB-adjustment relationship in dyads facing HSCT.