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Journal of Health Psychology
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Predicting Pain and Adjustment in Rheumatoid Arthritis

The Role of Life Stress and Emotional Processing

Mark A. Lumley

Wayne State University, USA

Jane E. Kelley

Wayne State University, USA

James C.C. Leisen

Henry Ford Hospital, USA

The role of disclosure and emotional processing of stressful life events has not been studied in chronically ill populations. We attempted to predict the pain, physical dysfunction, and affective disturbance of 82 patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) from their life stress and from various measures of emotional processing: disclosure to others and thought frequency about stressful events, positive and negative emotional expression, ambivalence about emotional expression and secrecy. After controlling for demographics (gender, race, education, disability status), disease measures (duration of diagnosis, objective disease activity), and life stress, we found that pain was related to an increased expression of negative emotion; physical dysfunction was related to an increased frequency of thinking about stressful events; and affective disturbance was related to both increased ambivalence about emotional expression and increased thought frequency. We conclude that RA pain and adjustment are better predicted by emotional processing of stressful life events—including disclosure to others and emotional expression—than by the experience of stressful events, per se.

Key Words: disclosure • emotion • pain, rheumatoid arthritis • stress

Journal of Health Psychology, Vol. 2, No. 2, 255-264 (1997)
DOI: 10.1177/135910539700200221
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