Cancer Distress Reduction with a Couple-Based Skills Training: A Randomized Controlled Trial
Abstract
BACKGROUND: There are few interventions for couples facing cancer. PURPOSE: This study aims to investigate the utility of providing dyadic skills to these couples. METHODS: Woman recently diagnosed with breast or gynecological cancer and their partners were randomly assigned to either a couple-skills intervention (Side by Side) or to cancer education (Couples Control Program). Assessments with self-report and behavioral observation of both partners were conducted four times over 16 months. RESULTS: Multilevel analyses of data from 72 participating couples suggest that females receiving Side by Side showed larger reductions in fear of progression, and couples reported less avoidance in dealing with the cancer, more posttraumatic growth, and better relationship skills relative to the Couples Control Program. All differences favoring Side by Side disappeared by 16 months after the diagnosis. CONCLUSION: Short-term changes in functioning may be improved by enhancing couples' dyadic skills during acute medical treatment of the disease.
The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.
Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.
Integrity signals
Registry
Cites
Statistics
Claims the paper makes
The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.
Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.
Claims other papers make about this one
Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?
The two-site, parallel-group RCT (1:1 randomization) suggested a significant reduction of FCR in survivors' post-intervention compared to the control group, but no significant decline in FCR of caregivers.
“the results from the two-site, parallel-group RCT (1:1 randomization) [22] suggested a significant reduction of FCR in survivors’ post-intervention [compared to the control group; F (1, 71) = 8.6, p = 0.005], no significant decline was demonstrated in the FCR of caregivers.”
From It is time to address fear of cancer recurrence in family caregivers: protocol for the feasibility and acceptability of a randomized pilot study of the online version of the Family Caregiver–Fear Of Recurrence Therapy (FC-FORT) (2024) · cites this paper as [22]
The Trial Design section confirms a two-site, 1:1 randomized parallel-group study. In “Fear of Progression (in Both Partners),” women in the intervention had a significantly greater pre-to-post decline than women in the control group, while men showed a parallel decline in both groups—not no decline at all. Table 2’s F(1,71)=8.6, p=0.005 refers to a pretreatment difference between the women’s groups, not the post-intervention effect; the patients were also recently diagnosed, rather than described as survivors. (LLM, conf=0.88)
Experimental — accuracy not yet measured
Self-check
Percentages, sums and reported differences re-computed from the paper’s own numbers.
The self-check needs the paper’s full text.
Cites
Littell, R. C. (1996) · Medical Entomology and Zoology · Cited by 10,345 · see citing works
Measuring Dyadic Adjustment: New Scales for Assessing the Quality of Marriage and Similar Dyads
Spanier, G. B. (1976) · Journal of Marriage and the Family · doi:10.2307/350547 · Cited by 7,095 · see citing works
The posttraumatic growth inventory: measuring the positive legacy of trauma
Tedeschi, R. G., & Calhoun, L. G. (1996) · Journal of Traumatic Stress · doi:10.1002/jts.2490090305 · Cited by 7,061 · cited 1× · see citing works
“The Posttraumatic Growth Inventory [19] is a 21-item (3point Likert scale from “not at all” to “very much”) measure to assess an individual’s finding meaning and benefit from the experience of severe life events.”
BackgroundMultilevel analysis : an introduction to basic and advanced multilevel modeling
Snijders, T. A. B., & Bosker, R. (1999) · Cited by 6,830 · see citing works
The longitudinal course of marital quality and stability: A review of theory, method, and research.
Karney, B. R., & Bradbury, T. N. (1995) · Psychological Bulletin · doi:10.1037/0033-2909.118.1.3 · Cited by 2,613 · see citing works
Measuring Marital Quality: A Critical Look at the Dependent Variable
Norton, R. W. (1983) · Journal of Marriage and the Family · doi:10.2307/351302 · Cited by 1,802 · see citing works
Using SAS PROC MIXED to Fit Multilevel Models, Hierarchical Models, and Individual Growth Models
Singer, J. D. (1998) · Journal of Educational and Behavioral Statistics · doi:10.2307/1165280 · Cited by 1,092 · see citing works
Hagedoorn, M., Sanderman, R., Bolks, H. N., Tuinstra, J., & Coyne, J. C. (2008) · Psychological Bulletin · doi:10.1037/0033-2909.134.1.1 · Cited by 777 · see citing works
Psychological adjustment to chronic disease
de Ridder, D., Geenen, R., Kuijer, R., & van Middendorp, H. (2008) · The Lancet · doi:10.1016/s0140-6736(08)61078-8 · Cited by 759 · see citing works
Health Psychology: Psychological Adjustment to Chronic Disease
Stanton, A. L., Revenson, T. A., & Tennen, H. A. (2006) · Annual Review of Psychology · doi:10.1146/annurev.psych.58.110405.085615 · Cited by 688 · see citing works
Enhanced cognitive-behavioral therapy for couples: A contextual approach.
Epstein, N. B., & Baucom, D. H. (2002) · American Psychological Association eBooks · doi:10.1037/10481-000 · Cited by 491 · see citing works
Self-citationMehnert, A., Herschbach, P., Berg, P., Henrich, G., & Koch, U. (2006) · Zeitschrift für Psychosomatische Medizin und Psychotherapie · doi:10.13109/zptm.2006.52.3.274 · Cited by 365 · see citing works
Self-citationThe relationship between dyadic coping and marital quality: A 2-year longitudinal study.
Bodenmann, G., Pihet, S., & Kayser, K. (2006) · Journal of Family Psychology · doi:10.1037/0893-3200.20.3.485 · Cited by 347 · see citing works
Scott, J. L., Halford, W. K., & Ward, B. G. (2004) · Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology · doi:10.1037/0022-006x.72.6.1122 · Cited by 324 · see citing works
Cancer-related relationship communication in couples coping with early stage breast cancer
Manne, S. L., Ostroff, J. S., Norton, T. R., Fox, K., Goldstein, L., & Grana, G. (2006) · Psycho-Oncology · doi:10.1002/pon.941 · Cited by 308 · see citing works
Coping with AIDS: Psychological and Health Implications1
Namir, S., Wolcott, D. L., Fawzy, F. I., & Alumbaugh, M. J. (1987) · Journal of Applied Social Psychology · doi:10.1111/j.1559-1816.1987.tb00316.x · Cited by 249 · see citing works
A couple‐based intervention for female breast cancer
Baucom, D. H., Porter, L. S., Kirby, J. S., Gremore, T. M., Wiesenthal, N., Aldridge, W. A., Fredman, S. J., Stanton, S. E., Scott, J. L., Halford, W. K., et al. (2008) · Psycho-Oncology · doi:10.1002/pon.1395 · Cited by 205 · see citing works
Self-citationCouple-Focused Group Intervention for Women With Early Stage Breast Cancer.
Manne, S. L., Ostroff, J. S., Winkel, G. H., Fox, K. R., Grana, G., Miller, E., Ross, S., & Frazier, T. G. (2005) · Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology · doi:10.1037/0022-006x.73.4.634 · Cited by 163 · see citing works
Badr, H., & Taylor, C. L. C. (2008) · Health Psychology · doi:10.1037/0278-6133.27.5.616 · Cited by 143 · see citing works
Scott, J. L., & Kayser, K. (2009) · The Cancer Journal · doi:10.1097/ppo.0b013e31819585df · Cited by 116 · see citing works
The Impact of Chronic Diseases
Baanders, A. N., & Heijmans, M. (2007) · Family & Community Health · doi:10.1097/01.fch.0000290543.48576.cf · Cited by 99 · see citing works
Kayser, K., Feldman, B. N., Borstelmann, N., & Daniels, A. (2010) · Social Work Research · doi:10.1093/swr/34.1.20 · Cited by 62 · see citing works
Prevention of marital distress by enhancing the coping skills of couples: 1-year follow-up-study
Bodenmann, G., Charvoz, L., Cina, A., & Widmer, K. (2001) · Swiss Journal of Psychology · doi:10.1024//1421-0185.60.1.3 · Cited by 60 · see citing works
Revision und psychometrische Prüfung des Fragebogen zur Belastung von Krebskranken (FBK-R23)
Herschbach, P., Marten‐Mittag, B., & Henrich, G. (2003) · Zeitschrift für Medizinische Psychologie · doi:10.3233/zmp-2003-12_2_05 · Cited by 49 · see citing works
Self-citationObservational coding of relationship-schematic processing
Sullivan, L. J., & Baucom, D. H. (2005) · Journal of Marital and Family Therapy · doi:10.1111/j.1752-0606.2005.tb01541.x · Cited by 28 · see citing works
Self-citationZimmermann, T., Heinrichs, N., & Scott, J. L. (2006) · Verhaltenstherapie · doi:10.1159/000096122 · Cited by 12 · see citing works
Self-citation
Flagged first, then by citations
Research works printed but not linked: 4
- Mehnert P, Herschbach P, Berg G, Henrich U, Koch U. Progredienzangst bei Brustkrebspatientinnen-Validierung der Kurzform des Progredienzangstfragebogens (PA-F-KF). Z Psy- chosom Med Psychother. 2006; 52: 274-288.
- Markman H, Stanley S, Blumberg S. Fighting for your marriage (revised and updated edition). San Francisco: Jossey Bass, Inc; 2001.
- Hahlweg K, Thurmaier F, Engl J, Eckert V., Markman HJ. Prävention von Beziehungsstörungen [Prevention of relationship disorders]. System Familie. 1993; 6: 89-100
- Bodenmann G. Dyadic coping and the 3-phase-method in working with couples. In: VandeCreek L, ed. Innovations in clinical practice: Focus on group and family therapy. Sarasota: Profes- sional Resources Press; 2007: 235-252.
Cited by
Sorted by citations
Tauber, N. M., O’Toole, M. S., Dinkel, A., Galica, J., Humphris, G., Lebel, S., Maheu, C., Ozakinci, G., Prins, J., Sharpe, L., et al. (2019) · Journal of Clinical Oncology · doi:10.1200/jco.19.00572 · Cited by 402 · see citing works
Dyadic coping and relationship functioning in couples coping with cancer: A systematic review
Traa, M. J., De Vries, J., Bodenmann, G., & Den Oudsten, B. L. (2015) · British Journal of Health Psychology · doi:10.1111/bjhp.12094 · Cited by 367 · see citing works
A review of family caregiving intervention trials in oncology
Ferrell, B., & Wittenberg, E. (2017) · CA: A Cancer Journal for Clinicians · doi:10.3322/caac.21396 · Cited by 256 · see citing works
Casellas‐Grau, A., Ochoa, C., & Ruini, C. (2017) · Psycho-Oncology · doi:10.1002/pon.4426 · Cited by 261 · see citing works
van de Wal, M., Thewes, B., Gielissen, M., Speckens, A., & Prins, J. (2017) · Journal of Clinical Oncology · doi:10.1200/jco.2016.70.5301 · Cited by 195 · see citing works
Mind‐body interventions for fear of cancer recurrence: A systematic review and meta‐analysis
Hall, D. L., Luberto, C. M., Philpotts, L. L., Song, R., Park, E. R., & Yeh, G. Y. (2018) · Psycho-Oncology · doi:10.1002/pon.4757 · Cited by 159 · see citing works
Li, Q., & Loke, A. Y. (2014) · Psycho-Oncology · doi:10.1002/pon.3535 · Cited by 152 · see citing works
Johns, S. A., Stutz, P. V., Talib, T. L., Cohee, A. A., Beck‐Coon, K. A., Brown, L. F., Wilhelm, L. R., Monahan, P. O., LaPradd, M. L., Champion, V. L., et al. (2020) · Cancer · doi:10.1002/cncr.32518 · Cited by 141 · see citing works
Psychosocial interventions for informal caregivers of people living with cancer
Treanor, C. J., Santin, O., Prue, G., Coleman, H., Cardwell, C. R., O'Halloran, P., & Donnelly, M. (2019) · Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews · doi:10.1002/14651858.cd009912.pub2 · Cited by 145 · see citing works
Ochoa, C., Casellas-Grau, A., Vives, J., Font, A., & Borràs, J.-M. (2017) · International Journal of Clinical and Health Psychology · doi:10.1016/j.ijchp.2016.09.002 · Cited by 136 · see citing works
Fear of Progression in Cancer Patients and Survivors
Dinkel, A., & Herschbach, P. (2018) · Recent Results in Cancer Research · doi:10.1007/978-3-319-64310-6_2 · Cited by 114 · see citing works
Self-citationInformal Caregivers of Cancer Patients: Review of Interventions, Care Activities, and Outcomes
Frambes, D., Given, B., Lehto, R., Sikorskii, A., & Wyatt, G. (2018) · Western Journal of Nursing Research · doi:10.1177/0193945917699364 · Cited by 94 · see citing works
Psychological intervention with couples coping with breast cancer: a systematic review
Brandão, T., Schulz, M. S., & Matos, P. M. (2014) · Psychology & Health · doi:10.1080/08870446.2013.859257 · Cited by 65 · see citing works
Pradhan, P., Sharpe, L., & Menzies, R. E. (2021) · Cancer Management and Research · doi:10.2147/cmar.s294114 · Cited by 60 · see citing works
Smith, A. ‘., Wu, V. S., Lambert, S., Lamarche, J., Lebel, S., Leske, S., & Girgis, A. (2022) · Journal of Cancer Survivorship · doi:10.1007/s11764-021-01109-4 · Cited by 48 · see citing works
Manne, S. L., Siegel, S. D., Heckman, C. J., & Kashy, D. A. (2016) · Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology · doi:10.1037/ccp0000110 · Cited by 39 · see citing works
Hsiao, F.-H., Jow, G.-M., Kuo, W.-H., Yang, P.-S., Lam, H.-B., Chang, K.-J., Lee, J.-J., Huang, C.-S., Lai, Y.-M., Chen, Y.-T., et al. (2016) · Mindfulness · doi:10.1007/s12671-016-0578-9 · Cited by 39 · see citing works
Nicolaisen, A., Hagedoorn, M., Hansen, D. G., Flyger, H. L., Christensen, R., Rottmann, N., Lunn, P. B., Terp, H., Soee, K., & Johansen, C. (2018) · Psycho-Oncology · doi:10.1002/pon.4613 · Cited by 39 · see citing works
Remote Psychological Interventions for Fear of Cancer Recurrence: Scoping Review.
Cincidda, C., Pizzoli, S. F. M., & Pravettoni, G. (2022) · JMIR Cancer · doi:10.2196/29745 · Cited by 34 · see citing works
“Side by Side had a greater effect on FoPe than the Couples Control Program; RCTd BCb or GCc Heinrichs et al [24] • Side by Side: 4 biweekly couple skills sessions • Couples Control Program however, this difference disappeared by 16 months after the diagnosis.”
BackgroundInfluentialLamarche, J., Cusson, A., Nissim, R., Avery, J., Wong, J., Maheu, C., Lambert, S. D., Laizner, A. M., Jones, J., Esplen, M. J., et al. (2023) · Frontiers in Digital Health · doi:10.3389/fdgth.2023.1129536 · Cited by 18 · see citing works
“Whereas results from one study (25) suggested a significant reduction of FCR in survivors’ postintervention (compared to the control group), no significant decline was demonstrated in FC’s FCR.”
Lamarche, J., Nissim, R., Avery, J., Wong, J., Maheu, C., Lambert, S. D., Laizner, A. M., Jones, J., Esplen, M. J., & Lebel, S. (2024) · Pilot and Feasibility Studies · doi:10.1186/s40814-024-01567-4 · Cited by 4 · see citing works
“However, while the results from the two-site, parallel-group RCT (1:1 randomization) [22] suggested a significant reduction of FCR in survivors’ post-intervention [compared to the control group; F (1, 71) = 8.6, p = 0.005], no significant decline was demonstrated in the FCR of caregivers.”
Influential
- Authors
- Heinrichs, N., Zimmermann, T., Huber, B., Herschbach, P., Russell, D. W., & Baucom, D. H.
- Affiliations
- Bielefeld University (DE)
- Technische Universität Braunschweig (DE)
- TUM Klinikum (DE)
- Iowa State University (US)
- University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (US)
- Corresponding author
- Heinrichs, Nina
- Venue
- Annals of Behavioral Medicine
- Publisher
- Oxford University Press (OUP)
- Published
- 2011-10-25
- Volume
- 43
- Issue
- 2
- Pages
- 239-252
- ISSN
- 0742-5554 (ISSN-L)
- 0883-6612
- 1532-4796
- OpenAlex
- W2009235417
- Cited by
- 128
- References
- 26
- Citations by year
- 2026: 4 · 2025: 6 · 2024: 10 · 2023: 8 · 2022: 9 · 2021: 9 · 2020: 6 · 2019: 14 · 2018: 13 · 2017: 11 · 2016: 13 · 2015: 8 · 2014: 9 · 2013: 5 · 2012: 1
- FWCI
- 2.52
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Annals of Behavioral Medicine (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- mediaTUM – the media and publications repository of the Technical University Munich (Technical University Munich) (submittedVersion)
- PUB – Publications at Bielefeld University (Bielefeld University) (submittedVersion)
- Publikationen an der Universität Bielefeld (Universität Bielefeld) (submittedVersion)
- Topics
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Oncology › Cancer survivorship and care
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Attachment and Relationship Dynamics
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Family Support in Illness
- Keywords
- cancer-related distress, couples, breast cancer, gynecologic cancer, fear of cancer progression, avoidance, posttraumatic growth, relationship skills, cancer education, partner support
- MeSH terms
- Adaptation, Psychological, Adult, Aged, Aged, 80 and over, Breast Neoplasms, Family Characteristics, Family Therapy, Female, Genital Neoplasms, Female, Humans, Male, Middle Aged, Personal Satisfaction, Stress, Psychological, Treatment Outcome
About these checks
Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.
Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.
Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.
What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›
Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review
