An Exploration of Common Dyadic Coping Strategies: A Perspective from Pakistani Couples Living with Chronic Conditions.

Abstract

This qualitative study was conducted to explore the common dyadic coping (DC) efforts of married couples, with a chronically ill partner. The sample for the study consisted of twelve couples chosen from Gujrat, Pakistan. The semi-structured interviews were conducted with the help of an interview guide and analyzed using thematic analysis (Braun and Clarke, 2006). The following four major themes were emerged: "common problem-focused DC," "common emotion-focused DC," "common religious DC," and "combined pattern of intimate relationships." The findings indicated that partners are not preferring relational coping resources for problem- and emotion-focused DC. However, the majority of couples participate in religious DC process in a complementary way to cope with stressful situation in the result of chronic illness. The study also indicated various indigenous factors, for example, socioeconomic status, family culture, lack of physical resource, and religious standpoints contributing in the lack of connectivity and sexual intimacy. To conclude, the results revealed that future research is required to investigate the patient and partner's relationship in greater depth, focusing on above-mentioned contextual factors.