The findings reveal complex bidirectional influences between CRC couples, including compensatory and reverse activation mechanisms. Relationship intimacy, communication quality, family role identity, resilience, and social support play crucial moderating roles in facilitating or hindering adaptive coping. These results underscore the necessity of psychosocial interventions adopting a family systems perspective, focusing on enhancing communication skills, clarifying role division, and strengthening support networks to improve psychological adjustment in cancer-affected families.
Sun et al. (Sun,) studied this question.