You are here

  1. Home
  2. Shipman, C.
  3. Partners' Attachment Styles and Overprotective Support as Predictors of Patient Outcomes in Cardiac Rehabilitation

Partners' Attachment Styles and Overprotective Support as Predictors of Patient Outcomes in Cardiac Rehabilitation

Objective: This study investigates whether the adult attachment styles of support partners in a cardiac rehabilitation context predict their use of overprotective support strategies, and whether such overprotection in turn predicts lower self-efficacy and poorer program attendance in cardiac rehabilitation patients. Research Method: Participants were 69 partner–patient dyads, mostly older adults (mean age = 65 years) in long-term relationships (M = 35 years). During the first week of a 10-week cardiac rehabilitation program in a midsized rural hospital, participants completed self-report questionnaires that were used to assess partners' attachment styles and levels of overprotection, as well as patients' health-related self-efficacy. Attendance at each session of the program was then tracked by cardiac rehabilitation staff members. Results: A moderated mediation model using bootstrapping showed that when partners were insecurely attached (high in both attachment avoidance and attachment anxiety), a mediational model held, such that more insecure partner attachment predicted more extensive use of overprotective support strategies, which in turn predicted lower patient self-efficacy for exercise and less-frequent program attendance. Implications: Implications for training support partners in more-effective support strategies are discussed. Impact and Implications: This article identifies support partners' attachment insecurity as a potential risk factor for offering overprotective support in a cardiac rehabilitation context; demonstrates that partners' attachment styles are associated with their use of support strategies, which in turn are associated with important patient outcomes, assessed via self-report (self-efficacy) and objective measures (program attendance); and responds to a call to better understand the dynamics of more-effective versus less-effective partner support strategies, as a means to improve training. Awareness of these dynamics may help to train partners in use of more effective support strategies, and/or help buffer patients when they receive less-effective forms of support. 

Access source material through DOI

Key Information

Type of Reference
Jour
Type of Work
Journal article
Publisher
American Psychological Association
ISBN/ISSN
0090-5550
Publication Year
2020
Issue Number
3
Journal Titles
Rehabilitation Psychology
Volume Number
65
Start Page
258
End Page
267