Abstract
Objective: Socioemotional selectivity theory predicts that as the end of life approaches, goals and resources that provide immediate, hedonic reward become more important than those that provide delayed rewards. This study tested whether these goal domains differentially affected psychological health in the context of marital dyads in which one partner had been diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), a life-limiting disease.
Design: ALS patients (N = 102) being treated in three multidisciplinary clinics and their spouses (N = 100) reported their loneliness, financial worry and psychological health every 3 months for up to 18 months.
Main Outcome Measure: Psychological health composite.
Results: In multilevel dyadic models, patients and spouses had similar levels of financial worry and loneliness. Both patients and spouses had worse psychological health with higher loneliness, but only spouses had worse psychological health with higher financial worry. Significant interactions with age and disease severity indicated that older spouses were more affected by loneliness than were younger spouses, and patients with less severe disease were more affected by financial worry than patients with more severe disease.
Conclusion: The results provide good support for socioemotional selectivity theory’s implications for psychological health in a strong test of the theory.
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
10-2019
Digital Object Identifier (DOI)
https://doi.org/10.1080/08870446.2019.1587441
Funding Information
This work was supported by the National Institute on Aging (K02-AG033629).
Repository Citation
Segerstrom, Suzanne C.; Kasarskis, Edward J.; Fardo, David W.; and Westgate, Philip M., "Socioemotional Selectivity and Psychological Health in Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis Patients and Caregivers: A Longitudinal, Dyadic Analysis" (2019). Psychology Faculty Publications. 197.
https://uknowledge.uky.edu/psychology_facpub/197
Notes/Citation Information
Published in Psychology & Health, v. 34, issue 10.
Copyright © 2020 Informa UK Limited
This is an Accepted Manuscript version of the following article, accepted for publication in Psychology & Health. Segerstrom, S. C., Kasarskis, E. J., Fardo, D. W., & Westgate, P. M. (2019). Socioemotional selectivity and psychological health in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis patients and caregivers: A longitudinal, dyadic analysis. Psychology & Health, 34(10), 1179-1195. https://doi.org/10.1080/08870446.2019.1587441 It is deposited under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits non-commercial re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.