Increased genetic testing in personalized medicine presents unique challenges for couples, including managing disease risk and potential discrimination as a couple. This study investigated couples' conflicts and support gaps as they coped with perceived genetic discrimination. We also explored the degree to which communal coping was beneficial in reducing support gaps, and ultimately stress. Dyadic analysis of married adults (N = 266, 133 couples), in which one person had the genetic risk for serious illness, showed that perceived discrimination predicted more frequent conflicts about AATD-related treatment, privacy boundaries, and finances, which, in turn, predicted wider gaps in emotion and esteem support, and greater stress for both spouses. Communal coping predicted lower support gaps for both partners and marginally lower stress.
Keyphrases
- social support
- depressive symptoms
- health risk
- intimate partner violence
- genome wide
- physical activity
- mental health
- heavy metals
- copy number
- stress induced
- autism spectrum disorder
- healthcare
- machine learning
- high resolution
- deep learning
- fluorescent probe
- hiv infected
- artificial intelligence
- social media
- living cells
- men who have sex with men
- smoking cessation
- replacement therapy