Project

Following radical prostatectomy (RP), postoperative morbidities (e.g., urinary incontinence) place new challenges upon patients’ autonomy and well-being. To meet these challenges, the Life-Span Theory of Control suggests that individuals actively regulate their development by adjusting goals and by using control strategies for goal attainment. By mobilization of external help, such control-strategy use can be extended to incorporate dynamics of enacted social support. Aims of this study are the investigation of patients’ short- and longer-term changes in control-strategy use, utilization of spousal support, and long-term changes in autonomy-related goals (“Lines of Defense”). Also, these factors’ potential protective functions for patients’ and their spouses’ immediate and long-term adaptation to patients’ postoperative morbidities are studied. A total of 206 RP patients and their partners will be recruited for participation in a prospective, combined diary and questionnaire study spanning about 8 months perisurgery. Studying patients’ immediate responses to postoperative morbidity with a diary approach and their assumed general readjustment as convalescence progresses will promote new insights into the dynamics of patients’ self-regulative functioning and their influence on spouses’ well-being and capacity to yield support.

 

Funding

This research was funded by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG KN 937/3-1) with a grant to Prof. Dr. Nina Knoll, Dr. Isolde Daig, and Prof. Dr. Mark Schrader

 

Project period

April 2009 to September 2012

Publications

Hohl, D. H., Knoll, N., Wiedemann, A. U., Keller, J., Scholz, U., Schrader, M., & Burkert, S. (2016). Enabling or cultivating? The role of prostate cancer patients’ received partner support and self-efficacy in the maintenance of pelvic-floor exercise following tumor surgery. Annals of Behavioral Medicine, 50, 247-258. doi:10.1007/s12160-015-9748-6

Keller, J., Burkert, S., Wiedmann, A. U., Luszczynska, A., Schrader, M., & Knoll, N. (2015). Individual and dyadic planning predicting pelvic floor exercise among prostate cancer survivors. Rehabilitation Psychology, 60, 222-231. doi:10.1037/rep0000047

Keller, J., Wiedemann, A. U., Hohl, D. H., Scholz, U. Burkert, S., Schrader, M., & Knoll, N. (accepted for publication). Predictors of dyadic planning: Perspectives of prostate cancer survivors and their partners. British Journal of Health Psychology.

Knoll, N., Wiedemann, A. U., Schrader, M., Felber, J., Burkert, S., Daig, I., & Heckhausen, J. (2015). Calibrating independence goals and partner support: Couples adjust to functional limitations after tumor surgery. Applied Psychology: Health and Well-Being, 7, 167-187. doi:10.1111/aphw.12043

Knoll, N., Wiedemann, A. U., Schultze, M., Schrader, M., & Heckhausen, J. (2014). Prostate cancer patients gradually advance goals for rehabilitation after radical prostatectomy: Applying a Lines-of-Defense Model to rehabilitation. Psychology and Aging, 29, 787-792. doi:10.1037/a0038311

 

Presentations (selection)

Knoll, N., Wiedemann, A., & Heckhausen, J. (2015, September). Good for one, bad for the other: Cancer patients’ compensatory control strategies and partners’ well-being. Paper presented at the 29th Conference of the European Health Psychology Society, Limassol, Cyprus.

Knoll, N., Wiedemann, A. U., Schultze, M., Schrader, M., & Heckhausen, J. (2014, September). Anpassung gesundheitsbezogener Autonomieziele während der Rehabilitation: Eine Studie mit Patienten und deren Partnerinnen nach radikaler Prostatektomie. Paper presented at the 49. Kongress der Deutschen Gesellschaft für Psychologie, Bochum, Germany.

Knoll, N., Wiedemann, A. U., Schultze, M., Schrader, M., & Heckhausen, J. (2014, May). Adjusting lines of defense during rehabilitation: Sequelae of radical prostatectomy in patients and their spouses. Paper presented at the 26th Annual APS Convention, San Francisco, USA.

Knoll, N., Wiedemann, A.U., Burkert, S., Felber, J. & Schrader, M. (2013, July). Couples Managing the First Days of Sequelae Following Prostatectomy: Support Relations with Affect and Conflict. Paper presented at the 27th Conference of the European Health Psychology Society, Bordeaux, France.

Knoll, N. Wiedemann, A.U., Heckhausen, J., Burkert, S., Felber, J. & Schrader, M. (2012, September). Nutzung partnerschaftlicher Unterstützung und Selbstregulation bei Krebspatienten mit funktionellen Einschränkungen [The utilization of partner support and self-regulation in cancer patients with functional limitations]. Paper presented at the 48th Congress of the German Psychological Society, Bielefeld, Germany.

Knoll, N., Wiedemann, A.U., Heckhausen, J., Burkert, S., Felber, J. & Schrader, M. (2012, August). Men’s Utilization of Spousal Support After Prostatectomy: Managing Autonomy in the Face of Postoperative Morbidities. Paper presented at the 12th International Congress of Behavioral Medicine, Budapest, Hungary.

Knoll, N., Wiedemann, A.U., Heckhausen, J., Burkert, S., Felber, J. & Schrader, M. (2012, August). The interplay of autonomy goals and spousal support: A prospective study with couples facing cancer. Paper presented at the 26th Conference of the European Health Psychology Society, Prague, Czech Republic.

Knoll, N., Wiedemann, A.U., Heckhausen, J., Burkert, S., Felber, J. & Schrader, M. (2012, July). Autonomy goals and support utilization: A longitudinal study with cancer patients and their partners. Paper presented at the 33rd Conference of the Stress and Anxiety Research Society, Palma de Mallorca, Spain.

Wiedemann, A.U. (2012, May). Illustrating integrated moderation and mediation analysis:  Self-regulation in a health context. Paper presented at the 24th Annual Convention of the Association of Psychological Science, Chicago, Illinois.

Wiedemann, A.U., Knoll, N., Burkert, S., Felber, J. & Schrader, M. (2012, March). Akzeptanz partnerschaftlicher Unterstützung und Selbstregulation bei Prostatektomie-Patienten mit funktionellen postoperativen Einschränkungen [Acceptance of spousal support and self-regulation in prostatatectomy patients mit post-operative functional limitations]. Paper presented at the Conference of Psychosomatic Medicine and Psychotherapy, Munich, Germany.

Wiedemann, A.U., Burkert, S., Knoll, N. (2011, October). Social exchange and self-regulation processes in health behaviour. Invited presentation at the workshop ‘Coping with stress and adversity: Implications and interventions from a mental and physical health perspective’ funded by the Sino-German Research Center, Beijing, China.

Wiedemann, A.U., Burkert, S. & Knoll, N. (2011, September). Prostatectomy patients’ utilization of social support and self-regulatory strategies: Managing urinary incontinence by pelvic-floor training. Poster presented at the 25th Conference of the European Health Psychology Society, Crete, Greece.

Wiedemann, A.U., Burkert, S. & Knoll, N. (2011, August). DyadischeBewältigung von Harninkontinenz: Soziale Unterstützung und selbstregulative Strategien fördern Gesundheitsverhalten bei Prostatektomie-Patienten [Dyadic coping with urinary incontinence: Social support and self-regulatory stategies promote health behaviour in patients after prostatectomy]. Paper presented at the 10th Congress of the Division of Health Psychology of the German Psychological Society, Berlin, Germany.

Wiedemann, A.U., Burkert, S. & Knoll, N. (2011, July). Utilization of social support and self-regulatory strategies: How couples manage prostatectomy patients’ urinary incontinence. Paper presented at the 32nd International Conference of the Stress and Anxiety Research Society, Münster, Germany.

Knoll, N. (2011, January). Partnerschaftliche Unterstützung im Erkrankungskontext: Bedingungen, Verlauf und Hinweise auf Effektivität [Spousal Support in Illness Contexts: Predictors, Development, and Hints at Efficiency]. Invited paper at the 27th Symposion on Methods in Social Psychology, University of Hamburg, Germany.

Knoll, N. (2010, September). Anpassung der Selbstregulation und Unterstützungsnutzung bei Patienten mit Harninkontinenz nach Prostatektomie [Adaption of self-regulation and utilization of cosial support following prostatectomy]. Paper presented at the joint conference of the German Society for Medical Psychology/German Society for Medical Sociology, Gießen, Germany.

Wiedemann, A.U., & Knoll, N. (2010, September). Utilization of social support and self-regulatory strategies in radical prostatectomy patients with urinary incontinence. Rapid communication poster presented at the 24th Conference of the European Health Psychology Society, Cluj, Romania.

Knoll, N. (2010, May). Soziale Unterstützung bei Patienten nach Prostatektomie [Social support for patients following prostatectomy]. Invited talk held at the Colloquium of Health Sciences and Health Services Research, Universitätsklinikum Leipzig, Leipzig, Germany.

Contact

Prof. Dr. Nina Knoll / Dr. Amelie Wiedemann

Freie Universität Berlin

Department of Education and Psychology

Division of Health Psychology

Habelschwerdter Allee 45

D-14195 Berlin

Tel: +49 30 - 838 51325 (Knoll) / 838 56718 (Wiedemann)

E-Mail: nina.knoll@fu-berlin.de / amelie.wiedemann@fu-berlin.de