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Published on: May 16, 2025
Positive affect as a factor of resilience in the pain-negative affect relationship in patients with rheumatoid
Elin B Strand1, Alex J Zautra, Magne Thoresen
1Department of Behavioural Sciences and Statistics, Institute of Basic Medical Science, University of Oslo, POB 1111 Blindern, N-0317 Oslo, Norway. e.b.strand@medisin.uio.no
Objective:
The purpose of this study is to examine positive affect (PA) as a factor of resilience in the relationships between pain and negative affect (NA) in a sample of patients with rheumatoid arthritis.
Methods:
Forty-three patients (30 women; mean age, 57 years) were interviewed weekly by telephone for 8 weeks. Multilevel modeling was applied to study the within-week relationships among the variables.
Results:
There was a Pain x PA interaction effect on NA (beta=-0.05, P<.01) indicating a weaker relationship between pain and NA in weeks with more PA. Pain (beta=0.37, P<.002), interpersonal stress (beta=2.42, P<.001), depression (beta=0.26, P<.01), average perceived stress (beta=10.80, P<.001), and also weekly PA (beta=-0.1, P<.01) had a main effect upon NA.
Conclusion:
Positive affect is most influential in reducing NA during weeks of higher pain and may be a factor of resilience, helping patients experiencing pain fluctuations as less distressful than at lower levels of PA.
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