Between Individual and Family Coping: A Decade of Theory and Research on Couples Coping With Health‐Related Stress

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Abstract
Although adjusting to health‐related stress is a critical process, existing individual and family stress and coping theories are inadequate for understanding the processes that occur in the context of a couple coping with health‐related stress. Focusing on the past decade, this review identifies empirical studies adopting a dyadic perspective to examine couples coping with health‐related stress. Four dyadic coping theories are identified, and this emerging theoretical landscape is summarized and evaluated. Despite advances in dyadic conceptualizations of stress and coping, the field lacks a comprehensive framework to guide research and integrate the diverse emerging theories. An ecological intra‐ and interpersonal process (EIIPP) framework is introduced to integrate current work in dyadic coping and to incorporate enduring contributions from the work on individual and family‐systems stress and coping that predates the explicitly dyadic conceptualizations. The review concludes by highlighting potential contributions of the EIIPP framework for advancing the family field.

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