A Dyadic Analysis of Negative Emotion Personality Predisposition Effects With Psychological Distress in Neonatal Intensive Care Unit Parents

The relation of parents' personality predisposition to guilt, shame, and fear of death with symptoms of posttraumatic stress, anxiety, and depression was examined in 67 couples who were the parents of sick newborn infants previously hospitalized in a Neonatal Intensive Care Unit. The Actor-Partner Interdependence Model method of dyadic analysis was used to determine the relation of parents' predisposition to guilt, shame, and fear of death to their own posttraumatic stress, anxiety, and depression (actor effect), and to the posttraumatic stress, anxiety, and depression of their partners (partner effect). The couple members were not statistically distinguishable by gender. Guilt had a significant actor effect with posttraumatic stress, anxiety, and depression, and a significant partner effect with anxiety and depression. Guilt explained 15-18% of the variance in these measures of psychological distress. Fear of death had a significant actor effect with all measures of psychological distress, but none of the partner effects was statistically significant. Shame did not predict posttraumatic stress or anxiety, but there was a significant actor effect with depression. Fear of death and shame explained only small proportions (3-6%) of the variance in the psychological distress variables with which they had statistically significant relationships. The guilt effects with psychological distress were intrapersonal (actor) and interpersonal (partner), whereas the fear of death and shame effects were intrapersonal. These emotions, particularly fear of death and shame, tend to be elusive as well as aversive, but they are important forerunners of psychopathology and deserve specific attention in psychological counseling.