Are spousal partner perceptions of continuity and discontinuity within the relationship linked to the symptoms of acquired brain injury?

Journal article


Yasmin, Natasha and Riley, Gerard 2021. Are spousal partner perceptions of continuity and discontinuity within the relationship linked to the symptoms of acquired brain injury? Disability and Rehabilitation. https://doi.org/10.1080/09638288.2021.1900410
AuthorsYasmin, Natasha and Riley, Gerard
Abstract

Some partners experience their relationship with a person with brain injury as the continuation of a loving pre-injury relationship (continuity), but others feel that the pre-injury relationship has been lost and replaced with something very different (discontinuity). This study provided a quantitative test of claims arising from qualitative research that certain symptoms of the injury might contribute to the experience of discontinuity – specifically, lack of emotional warmth, reduced social interaction and aggression. Fifty-three partners providing care to someone with brain injury completed questionnaires assessing continuity/discontinuity and a range of symptoms (emotional warmth, conversational ability, aggression, depression, somatic complaints, cognition, communication, aggression, and phys- ical disability). Discontinuity was significantly correlated with all symptom variables except physical disability but, in a multiple regression, only the measures of emotional warmth, conversation, aggression, and depression made a significant unique contribution. Discontinuity has been linked with relationship dissatisfaction and dysfunction, greater bur- den and distress, and a less person-centred approach to the provision of care. Identifying which symp- toms contribute to discontinuity may enable partners to be more effectively supported in terms of how they make sense of and react to those symptoms, so that a greater sense of continuity may be retained.

KeywordsMarriage; caregivers; interpersonal relationships; relationship continuity; brain injury; aggression
Year2021
JournalDisability and Rehabilitation
PublisherTylor & Francis
ISSN1464-5165
Digital Object Identifier (DOI)https://doi.org/10.1080/09638288.2021.1900410
Web address (URL)http://hdl.handle.net/10545/625821
hdl:10545/625821
Publication dates18 Mar 2021
Publication process dates
Deposited15 Jun 2021, 08:47
Accepted03 Mar 2021
ContributorsUniversity of Birmingham and University of Derby
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https://repository.derby.ac.uk/item/934yw/are-spousal-partner-perceptions-of-continuity-and-discontinuity-within-the-relationship-linked-to-the-symptoms-of-acquired-brain-injury

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