Nathalie Meuwly

Stress, anger, and verbal aggression in intimate relationships: Moderating effects of individual and dyadic coping

Verbally aggressive exchanges between intimate partners are more likely during times of stress. Therefore, the present study examines (i) whether partners’ proneness to anger mediates the association between stress and verbal aggression and (ii) the degree to which individual and dyadic coping moderate associations among stress, anger, and aggression. Effective individual and dyadic coping reduces the effects of stress on aggression. Moreover, dyadic coping may attenuate associations between stress and both anger and verbal aggression. Individuals reporting adaptive and maladaptive coping typically differed in verbal aggression when stress was low, but not when stress was high. This is consistent with the notion that stressors govern strong negative emotion displayed in marriage. Implications of these findings for interventions that mitigate the effects of stress on relationships are discussed.

Effects of Stress on the Social Support Provided by Men and Women in Intimate Relationships

Although evolutionary and social-structural models predict that women will be more supportive than men in relationships, behavioral studies fail to confirm this difference. We predicted instead that gender differences in support will be moderated by stress, and that men will provide lower-quality support primarily when their stress is high. We predicted further that the detrimental effects of stress on men’s support will be more evident when men are responding to women’s emotionally toned expressions of stress than when men are responding to women’s affectively neutral expressions of stress. Stressed and unstressed men and women were observed providing support to a stressed relationship partner. While unstressed, men and women generally provided similar support to the stressed partner. While stressed, men provided lower-quality support than did comparably stressed women, but only in response to emotionally toned expressions of stress. Thus, gender differences in support may arise because women are better able than men to regulate other people’s emotional distress while managing stresses of their own.

Engaging in dyadic coping: Buffering the impact of everyday stress on prospective relationship satisfaction

Stress originating within one’s relationship (internal stress), such as conflicts between partners, has been shown to have detrimental effects on relational longevity and well-being. Theoretical arguments suggest the need to examine the impact stress originating outside the relationship (external stress) can have on relational well-being. External stress can spillover into the relationship causing internal stress, making stress a dyadic versus individualistic phenomenon. Using data from 131 couples, we examined whether internal stress may mediate the association between external stress and relationship satisfaction and how dyadic coping may moderate this relationship within one year. Dyadic coping was found to decrease the impact of chronic external stress on chronic internal stress, particularly in women. Women who reported higher dyadic coping skills had a higher relationship satisfaction which influenced also their partner’s relationship satisfaction positively. Further research should focus on couples’ dyadic coping skills as a mechanism between stress and relationship satisfaction.

More Than Just Sex: Affection Mediates the Association Between Sexual Activity and Well-Being

Positive interpersonal interactions such as affection are central to well-being. Sex is associated with greater individual well-being, but little is known about why this occurs. We predicted that experienced affection would account for the association between sex and well-being. Cross-sectional results indicated that affection mediated the association between sex and both life satisfaction (Study 1) and positive emotions (however, among men only in Study 2). In Study 3, an experience sampling study with 106 dual-earner couples with children, affection mediated the association between sex and increased positive affect in daily life. Cross-lagged analyses in Study 3 to 4 supported the predicted direction of the associations. Moreover, the strength of the daily association between sex and positive affect predicted both partners’ relationship satisfaction 6 months later. Our findings underscore the importance of affection and positive affect for understanding how sex promotes well-being and has long-term relational benefits.

Social psychological and related theories on long-term committed romantic relationships.

Over the past 50 years, psychological science on close relationships has developed a wide range of theories offering explanations of and insight into close and intimate relationships. In the current article, we provide a selective review of those lines of theorizing that are, in our view, most relevant to long-term committed relationships, and that have been most relevant in guiding empirical research on relationship functioning and development. The theoretical strands that we describe here all allow for predictions about the choices individuals make in the context of and based on evaluations of their existing relationships. These choices are relevant for relationship functioning and stability, and cover broad topics such as stay or leave decisions, commitment to persist in a relationship, but also more specific aspects such as how individuals’ behavioral responses during interactions, willingness to make sacrifices, or preferences regarding closeness and dependence. We describe the broad lines of thought that offer understanding of such choices, proposed by interdependence theory, the risk regulation model, social learning theory, attachment theory, and the intimacy process model. We finish with a synthesis in which we outline how the reviewed theoretical strands offer complementary rather than competing views, and we highlight particular strengths of the theories for guiding empirical research.

Sexual Orientation Prototypicality and Well-Being Among Heterosexual and Sexual Minority Adults

The current study examined the associations between sexual orientation prototypicality—or the extent to which an individual’s attractions or sexual behaviors are similar to others in the same sexual orientation category—and several indicators of well-being (depressive symptoms, loneliness, and self-esteem). Data were analyzed from a sample of 586 self-identified heterosexual and sexual minority (lesbian/gay and bisexual) men and women who completed an online survey. We used k-means cluster analysis to assign individuals to sexual orientation clusters (resulting in heterosexual and sexual minority clusters) based on dimensions of same-sex and other-sex attractions (emotional, romantic, and sexual) and sexual behavior. Sexual orientation prototypicality was operationalized as the Euclidean distance between an individual’s position in the cluster and their cluster centroid. Lower sexual orientation prototypicality (i.e., greater Euclidean distance from one’s cluster centroid) was significantly associated with higher depressive symptoms, higher loneliness, and lower self-esteem for men and women; results did not significantly differ for self-identified heterosexuals versus sexual minorities. Although self-identified sexual orientation and sexual orientation prototypicality were both associated with well-being for women, only sexual orientation prototypicality was associated with well-being for men. Findings suggest that sexual orientation prototypicality may be a better indicator of well-being than sexual orientation for men. Further, sexual orientation prototypicality appears to play a significant role in well-being for women.

Zooming in: A microanalysis of couples’ dyadic coping conversations after experimentally induced stress.

Growing evidence that social support in times of stress is crucial for well-functioning relationships raises important questions about how intimate partners elicit specific forms of supportive behavior. To explore the process of support elicitation, we exposed either the male or female partner in a relationship to a standardized laboratory stressor (N = 127 couples), videotaped their subsequent reunion, and then coded those interactions at a microanalytic level to investigate links between expressions of stress and partner responses to those expressions. Multilevel analyses indicated that the type of stress expression served as a cue for the dyadic coping reaction of the partner. For example, problem-oriented stress expression within a 10-s interval of the conversation was strongly linked to problem-oriented dyadic coping in the same or following time sequence, while emotion-oriented stress expressions were associated with emotion-oriented dyadic coping reactions. These findings enhance the understanding of the link between different stress expressions and dyadic coping reactions and offer important implications for couple interventions.

Feeling bad when your partner is away: The role of dysfunctional cognition and affect regulation strategies in insecurely attached individuals

Close relationships have a positive impact on partners’ well-being. However, not every individual seems to benefit to the same extent from being in a close relationship. Insecure attachment is suggested to play a role in this. This study examined the role of attachment insecurity in people’s negative cognitions and dysfunctional affect regulation when faced with a potential relationship threat. Based on the Articulated Thoughts in Simulated Situations Paradigm, cognitions of 155 participants were recorded while they imagined a separation from their romantic partner. Highly anxious individuals were found to think more negatively about their romantic relationship while imagining a potential relationship threat, which in turn increased their negative affect and negative ratings of the self and their relationship. A different pattern was found for avoidance; highly avoidant individuals benefited from negating the potential threat which in turn decreased their negative affect. Insecurely attached individuals, especially highly anxious people, should be helped to engage in more adaptive thinking and affect regulation in relationship-threatening situations to improve both their relational and individual well-being.

Analyzing Dyadic Sequence Data-Research Questions and Implied Statistical Models.

The analysis of observational data is often seen as a key approach to understanding dynamics in romantic relationships but also in dyadic systems in general. Statistical models for the analysis of dyadic observational data are not commonly known or applied. In this contribution, selected approaches to dyadic sequence data will be presented with a focus on models that can be applied when sample sizes are of medium size (N = 100 couples or less). Each of the statistical models is motivated by an underlying potential research question, the most important model results are presented and linked to the research question. The following research questions and models are compared with respect to their applicability using a hands on approach: (I) Is there an association between a particular behavior by one and the reaction by the other partner? (Pearson Correlation); (II) Does the behavior of one member trigger an immediate reaction by the other? (aggregated logit models; multi-level approach; basic Markov model); (III) Is there an underlying dyadic process, which might account for the observed behavior? (hidden Markov model); and (IV) Are there latent groups of dyads, which might account for observing different reaction patterns? (mixture Markov; optimal matching). Finally, recommendations for researchers to choose among the different models, issues of data handling, and advises to apply the statistical models in empirical research properly are given (e.g., in a new r-package “DySeq”).