Family Coping with Chronic Pain

This study explored the contributions of the family to the coping process in a sample of 50 patients with chronic pain and their spouses. The patients rated the impact of chronic pain and their individual coping activities as well as their families' significance to them. The spouses rated the impact of chronic pain on their families and reported family rituals. Both the patients and spouses completed individual and family outcome measures. The family variables were associated significantly with family, patient, and spouse outcome. The patients' reports of greater family significance, appraisals of less impact of pain on the family, and more routine and meaningful rituals were associated with better pain-specific individual and family outcome. The family variables also were associated with patient outcome beyond the effect of traditional, individual pain-coping activities. The strongest finding was that the spouses' appraisals of less impact of chronic pain on the family and the spouses' report of more routine in family rituals were associated with the patients' report of their more positive outcome.