Psychosocial Adaptation to Chronic Illness and Disability: An Updated and Expanded Conceptual Framework

Abstract

The article revisits and updates an earlier model (Livneh, 2001) that examined the building blocks that constitute the dynamics of psychosocial adaptation to chronic illness and disability (CID). In the revised tripartite model, the author reconstructs and refines the earlier model based on recent theoretical formulations, clinical reviews and research findings. In the revised model, the author discusses three overarching components, namely, antecedents (causes of medical conditions, background variables), processes (the dynamically unfolding course of post-CID events), and outcomes (anticipated exit indicators that serve, as snapshot end products, to assess the individual’s experienced and reported quality of life following onset of CID). The article concludes with a brief review of the model’s practical and research implications.