Beyond social support: using family expectations to predict psychological adjustment in end-stage renal disease...

One hundred fifty-nine hemodialysis patients completed questionnaires measuring three interpersonal processes, specifically, family expectations, social support, and negative support, and psychological adjustment as measured by depression, optimism, and quality of life. Follow-up assessments were collected three months later. Cross-sectionally family expectations predicted depression when social support was controlled and both depression and quality of life when negative support was controlled. Prospectively, family expectations predicted depression at Time 2 after controlling for social support. Family expectations also predicted depression, optimism and quality of life at Time 2 after controlling for negative support. Implications for designing relevant intervention research are discussed.