INVISIBLE SUPPORT AND DAILY MOOD AMONG OSTEOARTHRITIS PATIENTS AND SPOUSES

BACKGROUND Type II diabetes mellitus (T2DM) is a common chronic disease. To manage blood glucose levels, patients need to follow medical recommendations for healthy eating, physical activity, and medication adherence in their everyday life. Illness management is mainly shared with partners and involves social support and common dyadic coping (CDC). Social support and CDC have been identified as having implications for people’s health behavior and well-being. Visible support, however, may also be negatively related to people’s well-being. Thus, the concept of invisible support was introduced. It is unknown which of these concepts (ie, visible support, invisible support, and CDC) displays the most beneficial associations with health behavior and well-being when considered together in the context of illness management in couple’s everyday life. Therefore, a novel ambulatory assessment application for the open-source behavioral intervention platform MobileCoach (AAMC) was developed. It uses objective sensor data in combination with self-reports in couple’s everyday life. OBJECTIVE The aim of this paper is to describe the design of the Dyadic Management of Diabetes (DyMand) study, funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation (CR12I1_166348/1). The study was approved by the cantonal ethics committee of the Canton of Zurich, Switzerland (Req-2017_00430). METHODS This study follows an intensive longitudinal design with 2 phases of data collection. The first phase is a naturalistic observation phase of couples’ conversations in combination with experience sampling in their daily lives, with plans to follow 180 T2DM patients and their partners using sensor data from smartwatches, mobile phones, and accelerometers for 7 consecutive days. The second phase is an observational study in the laboratory, where couples discuss topics related to their diabetes management. The second phase complements the first phase by focusing on the assessment of a full discussion about diabetes-related concerns. Participants are heterosexual couples with 1 partner having a diagnosis of T2DM. RESULTS The AAMC was designed and built until the end of 2018 and internally tested in March 2019. In May 2019, the enrollment of the pilot phase began. The data collection of the DyMand study will begin in September 2019, and analysis and presentation of results will be available in 2021. CONCLUSIONS For further research and practice, it is crucial to identify the impact of social support and CDC on couples’ dyadic management of T2DM and their well-being in daily life. Using AAMC will make a key contribution with regard to objective operationalizations of visible and invisible support, CDC, physical activity, and well-being. Findings will provide a sound basis for theory- and evidence-based development of dyadic interventions to change health behavior in the context of couple’s dyadic illness management. Challenges to this multimodal sensor approach and its feasibility aspects are discussed. INTERNATIONAL REGISTERED REPORT PRR1-10.2196/13685

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Empathic accuracy and invisible support in close relationships under stress

PsycEXTRA Dataset ◽

10.1037/e633872013-286 ◽

2003 ◽

Author(s):

Maryhope Howland ◽

Niall Bolger

Keyword(s):

Close Relationships ◽

Empathic Accuracy ◽

Invisible Support

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Digi-Housekeeping: The Invisible Work of Flexibility

Work Employment and Society ◽

10.1177/0950017020916192 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 34 (6) ◽

pp. 1079-1096

Author(s):

Rebecca Whiting ◽

Gillian Symon

Keyword(s):

Work Activities ◽

Work Arrangements ◽

Invisible Work ◽

Everyday Practices ◽

Flexible Working ◽

Real Work ◽

Work Intensification ◽

Contemporary Work ◽

Invisible Support ◽

Sociocultural Processes

From an analysis of everyday practices of flexible working captured in video diaries, a form of pervasive but invisible support work is identified and presented. Labelled ‘digi-housekeeping’, this is work that is required to maintain the digital tools that enable flexible working, and incorporates the tasks of clearing, sorting, preparing, provisioning and troubleshooting. Through the sociocultural processes of responsibilization, personalization and work extension, interpreted here as emblematic of wider neoliberal contemporary work arrangements, digi-housekeeping is devalued and made invisible, characterizing these tasks as not ‘real’ work. Classifying these tasks as not ‘real’ work is a new kind of boundary work that supports the continuing displacement of work activities onto individual workers. It is argued that such tasks need to be made visible in order to address feelings of work intensification.

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Visible and Invisible Social Support: How, Why, and When

Current Directions in Psychological Science ◽

10.1177/0963721419835214 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 28 (3) ◽

pp. 314-320 ◽

Cited By ~ 9

Author(s):

Katherine S. Zee ◽

Niall Bolger

Keyword(s):

Social Support ◽

Empirical Evidence ◽

Social Relationships ◽

Negative Effects ◽

Invisible Support ◽

Difficult Times

Social relationships can be a vital source of help in difficult times. However, attempts to provide social support that is visible—direct and recognized by recipients as help—can sometimes have unintended negative effects. By contrast, invisible support—provided indirectly such that recipients do not interpret the behavior as help—can circumvent potential negative effects. In this article, we synthesize empirical evidence on support visibility using three organizing questions: How do support attempts differ in visibility? Why is invisible support often more beneficial than visible support? When is invisible support, as opposed to visible support, needed? The answers to these questions can illuminate mechanisms of effective support generally, help explain known variability in support outcomes, and stimulate further research.

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The Paradox of Received Social Support

Psychological Science ◽

10.1111/j.1467-9280.2009.02388.x ◽

2009 ◽

Vol 20 (8) ◽

pp. 928-932 ◽

Cited By ~ 165

Author(s):

Natalya C. Maisel ◽

Shelly L. Gable

Keyword(s):

Social Support ◽

Relationship Quality ◽

Important Determinant ◽

Positive Outcomes ◽

Negative Outcomes ◽

Daily Experience ◽

Cohabiting Couples ◽

Received Social Support ◽

Invisible Support

Although the perception of available support is associated with positive outcomes, the receipt of actual support from close others is often associated with negative outcomes. In fact, support that is “invisible” (not perceived by the support recipient) is associated with better outcomes than “visible” support. To investigate this paradox, we proposed that received support (both visible and invisible) would be beneficial when it was responsive to the recipient's needs. Sixty-seven cohabiting couples participated in a daily-experience study in which they reported on the support they provided and received each day. Results indicated that both visible and invisible support were beneficial (i.e., associated with less sadness and anxiety and with greater relationship quality) only when the support was responsive. These findings suggest that the nature of support is an important determinant of when received support will be beneficial.

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The invisible support networks of doctoral candidates: What acknowledgement sections of doctoral theses reveal

South African Journal of Higher Education ◽

10.20853/35-3-3538 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 35 (3) ◽

Author(s):

E. Bitzer ◽

S. Leshem

Keyword(s):

Academic Success ◽

Doctoral Students ◽

Academic Writing ◽

Research Process ◽

University Administrators ◽

Doctoral Graduates ◽

Doctoral Research ◽

Social Forms ◽

Invisible Support ◽

Doctoral Candidates

Although some argue that acknowledgement sections should not form part of doctoral theses, others welcome such sections and are of the opinion that they reflect original and personal contributions, constituting a neglected genre. Previous research on acknowledgement texts have focused more on their linguistic characteristics as related to the academic writing of theses. The present study, however, inquired into acknowledgement sections from a social support perspective. The aim of the study was to bring to light the dimension of the social milieu and its importance in supporting doctoral students in successfully achieving their doctorate. More specifically, the study sought to investigate the role of “significant others” in the academic success of doctoral students as reflected in the genres of acknowledgement in doctoral theses by analysing such texts from 30 completed doctoral theses in South Africa and Israel. Follow-up interviews with graduates assisted to probe deeper into the meaning of the texts. Although limited in nature, the study found that, based on who doctoral graduates acknowledge, several role-players and supporters seem to contribute to doctoral success. This includes family members, friends, colleagues, study supervisors, funders and university administrators. What also became clear was that doctoral candidates rely mainly on psycho-social forms of support and that particular kinds of such support are crucial at different stages of the doctoral journey. Acknowledgement studies confirm the doctoral research process as an activity stream that integrates the personal, the interpersonal and the institutional to reveal the mostly hidden, but very important, influences on the doctorate.

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