HOW PERCEIVED CONTROL AND CONGRUENT SPOUSE SUPPORT AFFECT RHEUMATOID-ARTHRITIS PATIENTS

Employing a person-situation fit model, this study assessed the effect s of congruence between wives' trait internality (I-E) and their spous es' encouragement of self-reliance (SRE) or reliance on others (ORE) o n several measures of psychological distress. Age was treated as an im portant moderator of person/situation interaction processes. Subjects were 36 middle-aged and older-aged adult women with rheumatoid arthrit is (RA) and their spouses recruited from an outpatient rheumatology pr actice. Regression analyses revealed three-way interactions of interna lity, age, and a difference score of SRE-ORE. Younger subjects with lo w internality scores on the locus of control scale reported less psych ological distress if their spouse engaged in increased encouragement o f control, while older low internals reported greater distress under t he same conditions. There were no significant effects for subjects wit h high internal locus of control. Congruence between personality and s pousal encouragement of control appears, therefore, to be an important contributor to the mental health of RA patients.