Coping in a relational context: The case of dyadic coping

Since its origins most of the stress and coping literature has focused primarily on the individual’s efforts to manage stressful encounters, conceptualizing both stress and coping as individual phenomena in which the coper appraises and deals with stressors individually. The individualistic approach, however, fails to consider that individuals do not experience and cope with stress in isolation, but within an articulated interpersonal context, especially the one referring to intimate others. Recent advances in the stress and coping field have highlighted the limitations of such a self-focused conceptualization and called for a broader view of the phenomenon. The present chapter is going to present these advances in the stress and coping literature with respect to coping in couples, from the recognition of the importance of interpersonal aspects of coping to the conceptualization of novel notions such as the one of dyadic coping. Finally, the chapter will conclude with research findings on the role of dyadic coping and partner support in couple functioning, with regard to both benefits and costs of such processes, and with the evidence available on some of the antecedents of dyadic coping.