Is Coping Goodness-of-Fit Related to Depression and Mood Disturbance in Women with Fibromyalgia Syndrome?

Abstract

Objectives

The present study tested the goodness-of-fit hypothesis, which posits that the outcome or effectiveness of a coping strategy depends on the fit between the type of strategy employed and the appraised controllability of the event. The purpose of the study was to determine whether the goodness-of-fit hypothesis would receive support in a group of women with fibromyalgia syndrome [FMS] in explaining depression and mood disturbance. Besides testing the goodness-of-fit hypothesis for emotion- and problem-focused coping, an additional goal was to determine whether the hypothesis applies to meaning-focused coping for this sample. This population offers a good test because FMS is often associated with feelings of distress and a lack of control over the syndrome.

Methods

Participants were 478 women with FMS [mean age 54.3 ± 11.2 years] who were part of a larger intervention. Analyses included separate hierarchical regression analyses to determine whether the relationship between coping and control predicted depression and mood disturbance.

Results

The goodness-of-fit hypothesis was in part supported for this sample. Additionally, control appeared to be an important factor in participants' experiences with FMS, and higher levels of coping were associated with less emotional distress.

Conclusions

This study extends the limited research on the goodness-of-fit hypothesis and contributes to the understanding of the relationship of control and coping in predicting emotional distress in people with FMS. Implications and directions for future research are discussed.

Keywords:

• Coping
• control
• fibromyalgia syndrome
• depression
• mood disturbance

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

This study was supported by funding from the National Institute of Health [contract no. AR-44020].

DECLARATION OF INTEREST The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Notes

Originally education level and marital status had been included as demographic variables, but neither variable significantly contributed to variance in the outcome variables. Although the variable length of symptoms did not significantly contribute to variance in the outcomes, it was included because of its relevance.