Daily received support and relational functioning in HCT survivors and their caregivers

Numerous authors have expressed their interest in adjustment and social support in the context of cancer. However, none of the previous studies has directly examined the models describing the links between daily social support and adjustment fluctuation, particularly at the relational level. This study aimed to verify the additive and buffering models of daily received support regarding the relational level of patient-caregiver relationship, that is, the relationship-related stress and relationship satisfaction following hematopoietic cell transplantation (HCT).

Two hundred patient-caregiver dyads participated in a 28-day diary study that was started on the first day after post-HCT discharge. The participants rated the extent of daily relationship-related stress, relationship satisfaction, and received support every evening during the study. The analyses were based on the actor-partner interdependence moderation model.

Daily deviations in received support were directly associated with concurrent and lagged daily deviations in relationship satisfaction, regardless of relationship-related stress level in both patients and caregivers. In addition, in caregivers, the effect of daily deviations in received support on relationship satisfaction depended on deviations in relationship-related stress and was significant on the days with higher relationship-related stress.

The findings supported both the additive (in patients and caregivers) and the buffering hypotheses (in caregivers) of daily received support in patient-caregiver dyads during the first month following HCT. The theoretical and practical implications of the findings are further highlighted.