Daily anger and sadness undermine relationship satisfaction after a stroke with spousal post-stroke intimacy as a protective factor

Chronic illness represents a salient stress context, introducing sustained uncertainty and regulatory demands for both individuals and their partners. In this context, negative emotions may place excess strain on the relationship. This study examined daily actor and partner associations between morning anger and sadness and same-day relationship satisfaction in post-stroke couples, as well as whether spouse perceived post-stroke intimacy buffered these associations.

Eighty-nine couples in which one partner had experienced a stroke completed morning and evening reports of anger, sadness, and relationship satisfaction for up to 14 consecutive days. Post-stroke intimacy was assessed at study exit. Two-level actor-partner interdependence models were estimated.

Within-person analyses indicated that both actor and partner anger and sadness were associated with lower same-day relationship satisfaction. Lower intimacy impact buffered the association between partners’ morning sadness and stroke survivors’ satisfaction. Daily relational functioning may represent a pathway through which chronic stress becomes embedded in lived experience.

Theresa Pauly and Maureen C. Ashe gratefully acknowledge the support of the Canada Research Chairs Program. Rachel A Murphy acknowledges the support of the Michael Smith Foundation for Health Research (grant #17644).

Elizabeth Zambrano Garza gratefully acknowledges support from UBC’s Four Year Doctoral Fellowship and the National Institutes of Health (T32 AG049676). Sierra Birthelmer gratefully acknowledges support from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council Master’s Award. We thank our participants for their contributions to this project.

This work was supported by a peer-reviewed grant from the Heart and Stroke Foundation of Canada (G-16-00012717 to Christiane A. Murphy, Wolfgang Linden, and Kenneth M. The funder had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.