The relationship between dyadic coping and dyadic adjustment among HIV-serodiscordant couples

ABSTRACT

Living within an HIV-serodiscordant relationship has been recognized as a stressful experience for both HIV-infected and HIV-uninfected partners. However, no study has examined the association between dyadic coping (DC) and dyadic adjustment of such couples. In this study, we analysed the association between DC (positive, negative, and common DC) and dyadic adjustment (consensus, satisfaction, cohesion) among HIV-serodiscordant couples, considering individual and cross-partner effects. This cross-sectional study included a sample of 44 HIV-serodiscordant different-sex couples, in a relationship for an average of 16.46 years. The self-reported measures included the Dyadic Coping Inventory and the Revised Dyadic Adjustment Scale. For HIV-infected partners, their own common DC was significantly associated with cohesion, and a cross-partner effect of common DC on satisfaction was found. For HIV-uninfected partners, individual effects of common DC on all dyadic adjustment subscales and a cross-partner effect of common DC on cohesion were found. Additionally, their own and their HIV-infected partners’ negative DC were significantly associated with cohesion and satisfaction, respectively. These findings suggest that the perception of common DC has a particularly important role in explaining the different components of dyadic adjustment of both partners facing HIV-serodiscordancy, whereas negative DC is linked to the adjustment of HIV-uninfected partners.

KEYWORDS:

• HIV-serodiscordant couples
• dyadic coping
• dyadic adjustment
• cross-partner effect

Acknowledgments

The authors are grateful to the participants of the study and wish to thank the Centro Hospitalar e Universitário de Coimbra, EPE, the Hospital de Santa Maria – Centro Hospitalar de Lisboa Norte, EPE, and the Hospital Garcia de Orta, EPE for providing the conditions for data collection.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Data availability statement

The datasets used and/or analysed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request ([email protected]).

Additional information

Funding

This study is part of the research project “The HIV Serodiscordant Couple’s Project: A dyadic and multidimensional approach”, integrated in the Research Group Relationships, Development & Health of the R&D Unit Center for Research in Neuropsychology and Cognitive Behavioral Intervention of the Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences, University of Coimbra. This work was supported by the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT). Alexandra Martins is supported by a PhD scholarship from the FCT (SFRH/BD/100117/2014). Marco Pereira is an FCT Researcher (IF/00402/2014). The funders were not involved in the study design, the data collection and analysis or interpretation of the data, writing the manuscript, or the decision to submit the manuscript for publication.