Interaction effects between emotional disorder and self-differentiation on intimate relationship in young and middle-aged breast cancer patient-spouse dyads
GU Lilei
LYU Yuqin
XUE Lian
YANG Mingxia
YIN Bi
Abstract：Objective To analyse the effects and underlying mechanism among emotional disorder,self-differentiation and intimate re-lationships in young and middle-aged breast cancer patient-spouse dyads.Methods A total of 212 dyads of young and middle-aged breast cancer patients and their spouses were investigated by general information questionnaire,Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale,Brief Differ-entiation of Self Inventory-Revised Scale and Marriage Adjustment Test.Results The scores of patients'emotional disorder was significantly higher than their spouse,while the score of patients'self-differentiation and intimate relationship were significantly lower than their spouse(all P＜0.05).The paired pattern of emotional disorder on intimate relationships was mixed for patients,whereas it was dominant for spouses.The actor-partner interdependence mediation model revealed:① In actor effects,both patients'and their spouses'emotional disorder could negatively predict their own intimate relationships,whereas their self-differentiation could positively predict their own intimate relationships(P＜0.05).② In the partner effect,spouses'emotional disorder and self-differentiation could predict the patients'intimate relationship(P＜0.05).The mediating effect analysis showed that self-differentiation mediated the relationship between emotional disorder and intimate relationship for both patients and spouses(all P＜0.05).Additionally,self-differentiation mediated the effect of spouses'emotional disorder and the patient's intimate relationship(P＜0.05).Conclusion There is an interactive influence among emotional disorder,self-differentia-tion,and intimate relationship in young and middle-aged breast cancer patient-spouse dyads.Interventions should adopt a dyadic perspective to improve their intimate relationship.
Keywords：breast canceremotional disorderself-differentiationintimate relationshipactor-partner interdependencemediation modelnursing
Publication Date：2025-08-10
Online Publishing Date：2025-09-24(First online date of this platform, not the publication date of the document)
Pages：6( 655-660 )