Equiti theory states that persons attempt to maintain balanced ratios of benefits provided to and received from relationship partners to avoid violating social norms and to counteract dependency.

In the new study, partners´ own receipt of support was found to be positively associated with their own concurrent support provision. Furthermore, Knoll and Burkert found that an initial moderate association between partners´ receipt and their own provision of support pre-surgery significantly droped two-weeks post-surgery and then increased again in the following year. Notably, predictors indicating patients´need for support, i.e., frequency of incontinence and patients´ direct mobilization of support from their partners, were also significantly related with partners´ provision of supports to patients.
 
Findings from this study strongly resemble earlier results reported by Knoll et al., who also showed that norms of reciprocity in support provision among partners in illness contexts may be temporarily overruled by salient physical impairment and functional limitations.
 
This is in line with earlier findings suggesting that in times of patients´ physical limitations and distress, patients´overbenefiting is thought to be a fairer distribution of support than supportive equity.

Sozialpsychologie, Psychotherapie und Gesundheit
Witte, Erich H.; Petersen, Sibylle (Hrsg.)