To explore the influence of dyadic coping on psychological distress in patients undergoing androgen deprivation therapy (ADT) for prostate cancer and their spouses.

A convenience sampling method was used to select 223 patients with prostate cancer undergoing ADT and their spouses from two tertiary grade A hospitals in Guangdong Province between October 2024 and August 2025. General information questionnaires, the dyadic coping inventory, and the Kessler Psychological Distress Scale were used for assessment. An actor-partner interdependence model was established to analyze the relationship between dyadic coping and psychological distress in both partners.

The analysis of the actor-partner interdependence model showed that regarding positive coping, the patient's positive dyadic coping negatively influenced their own psychological distress (β=-0.371, P<0.05), but positively influenced the spouse's psychological distress (β=0.462, P<0.05). The spouse's positive dyadic coping negatively influenced both their own (β=-0.946, P<0.001) and the patient's psychological distress (β=-0.371, P<0.05). Regarding negative coping, the patient's negative dyadic coping did not significantly influence either their own or the spouse's psychological distress (P> 0.05). Conversely, the spouse's negative dyadic coping positively influenced both their own (β=0.465, P<0.001) and the patient's psychological distress (β=0.400, P<0.001).

Clinical nursing should implement psychosocial interventions for patients undergoing ADT and their spouses as an integrated unit. While affirming patients' positive coping efforts in alleviating their own psychological distress, emphasis should be placed on enhancing the spouse's positive coping and reducing their negative coping, so that the psychological distress of both partners can be alleviated.