Intrusive thoughts and psychological distress among cancer patients: The role of spouse avoidance and criticism

This study examined whether perceived spouse criticism and avoidance impact ed cognitive processing in 129 cancer patients. It was hypothesized that in trusive thoughts would be associated with an increase in psychological dist ress among patients who felt their spouses were critical or avoiding them a nd that intrusive thoughts would not be positively associated with distress among patients who did not feel their spouses were critical or avoidant. T he impact of spouse criticism was predicted to be stronger than the impact of spouse avoidance. A moderating effect for spouse criticism on the associ ation between early intrusive thoughts and later distress was present. Spou se avoidance did not have a significant moderating effect on the relation b etween intrusive thoughts and later distress. Results suggest spouse critic ism and avoidance may have differential effects on the cognitive processing of cancer.