Richard B. Slatcher

Marital quality and health: A meta-analytic review

This meta-analysis reviewed 126 published empirical articles over the past 50 years describing associations between marital relationship quality and physical health in more than 72,000 individuals. Health outcomes included clinical endpoints (objective assessments of function, disease severity, and mortality; subjective health assessments) and surrogate endpoints (biological markers that substitute for clinical endpoints, such as blood pressure). Biological mediators included cardiovascular reactivity and hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis activity. Greater marital quality was related to better health, with mean effect sizes from r = .07 to .21, including lower risk of mortality (r = .11) and lower cardiovascular reactivity during marital conflict (r = -.13), but not daily cortisol slopes or cortisol reactivity during conflict. The small effect sizes were similar in magnitude to previously found associations between health behaviors (e.g., diet) and health outcomes. Effect sizes for a small subset of clinical outcomes were susceptible to publication bias. In some studies, effect sizes remained significant after accounting for confounds such as age and socioeconomic status. Studies with a higher proportion of women in the sample demonstrated larger effect sizes, but we found little evidence for gender differences in studies that explicitly tested gender moderation, with the exception of surrogate endpoint studies. Our conclusions are limited by small numbers of studies for specific health outcomes, unexplained heterogeneity, and designs that limit causal inferences. These findings highlight the need to explicitly test affective, health behavior, and biological mechanisms in future research, and focus on moderating factors that may alter the relationship between marital quality and health.

Language Style Matching Predicts Relationship Initiation and Stability

Previous relationship research has largely ignored the importance of similarity in how people talk with one another. Using natural language samples, we investigated whether similarity in dyads’ use of function words, called language style matching (LSM), predicts outcomes for romantic relationships. In Study 1, greater LSM in transcripts of 40 speed dates predicted increased likelihood of mutual romantic interest (odds ratio = 3.05). Overall, 33.3% of pairs with LSM above the median mutually desired future contact, compared with 9.1% of pairs with LSM at or below the median. In Study 2, LSM in 86 couples’ instant messages positively predicted relationship stability at a 3-month follow-up (odds ratio = 1.95). Specifically, 76.7% of couples with LSM greater than the median were still dating at the follow-up, compared with 53.5% of couples with LSM at or below the median. LSM appears to reflect implicit interpersonal processes central to romantic relationships.

Momentary work worries, marital disclosure, and salivary cortisol among parents of young children.

Objective: To investigate whether worries about work are linked to peoples own cortisol levels and their spouses cortisol levels in everyday life and whether marital factors may moderate these links. Although research has shown that satisfying marriages can buffer the physiological effects of everyday stress, the specific mechanisms through which marriage influences the processing and transmission of stress have not yet been identified. Methods: Thirty-seven healthy married couples completed baseline measures and then provided saliva samples and indicated their worries about work for six times a day from a Saturday morning through a Monday evening. Results: Wives cortisol levels were associated positively with their own work worries (p = .008) and with their husbands work worries (p = .006). Husbands cortisol levels were associated positively only with their own work worries (p = .015). Wives low in both marital satisfaction and disclosure showed a stronger association between work worries and cortisol compared with wives reporting either high marital satisfaction and/or high marital disclosure. Conclusions: These results suggest that momentary feelings of stress affect not only ones own cortisol levels but affect close others cortisol levels as well. Furthermore, they suggest that, for women, the stress-buffering effects of a happy marriage may be partially explained by the extent to which they disclose their thoughts and feelings with their spouses. HPA = hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal; EMA = Ecological Momentary Assessment; NA = negative affect; PSS = Perceived Stress Scale; APIM = actor-partner interdependence model; CAR = cortisol awakening response.

Preschoolers' everyday conflict at home and diurnal cortisol patterns.

OBJECTIVEnEarly life family conflict is associated with physical health problems later in life, but little is known about the biological pathways through which conflict at home exerts it deleterious effects on health. The goal of this study was to investigate the associations between naturalistically assessed conflict in everyday family environments and diurnal cortisol in preschool-aged children.nnnDESIGNnForty-four children aged 3-5 from two-parent families provided six saliva samples per day over 2 days from a Saturday morning through Sunday night. For a full day on either Saturday or Sunday, children wore a child version of the Electronically Activated Recorder, a digital voice recorder that records ambient sounds while participants go about their daily lives. Parents provided reports of child externalizing behaviors as well as daily reports of child conflicts.nnnMAIN OUTCOME MEASURESnDiurnal salivary cortisol over the two weekend days of the study.nnnRESULTSnGreater Electronically Activated Recorder-assessed child conflict at home was associated with children having lower cortisol at wakeup (p < .009) and flatter diurnal cortisol slopes (p < .007). These associations remained significant even after controlling for parent reports of child externalizing behaviors, parent reports of daily child conflicts, and child age and sex.nnnCONCLUSIONnThese findings indicate that taking into consideration everyday conflicts at home may be key to our understanding of stress-health links in young children.

Testosterone and Self-Reported Dominance Interact to Influence Human Mating Behavior:

In this study, 76 men came into the lab in pairs and engaged in a 7-minute videotaped mate competition for the attention of an attractive female confederate. Pre-competition testosterone (T) levels were positively associated with men’s dominance behaviors and with how much the confederate indicated that she “clicked” with each participant. Dyadic analyses showed that self-reported dominance moderated the effects of T on one’s own dominance behaviors and on opponents dominance behaviors. Specifically, among men high in self-reported dominance, there was a strong positive association between T and their own dominance behaviors and a strong negative association between T and opponents dominance behaviors. However, among men low in self-reported dominance, there was no association between T and dominance behaviors. These findings provide novel evidence linking T with evolutionarily adaptive behaviors in humans and suggest that T interacts with people’s explicit dominance motives to regulate behaviors that enhance mating success.

Perceived Partner Responsiveness Predicts Diurnal Cortisol Profiles 10 Years Later

Several decades of research have demonstrated that marital relationships have a powerful influence on physical health. However, surprisingly little is known about how marriage affects health—both in terms of psychological processes and biological ones. Over a 10-year period, we investigated the associations between perceived partner responsiveness—the extent to which people feel understood, cared for, and appreciated by their romantic partners—and diurnal cortisol in a large sample of married and cohabitating couples in the United States. Partner responsiveness predicted higher cortisol values at awakening and steeper (i.e., healthier) cortisol slopes at the 10-year follow-up. These associations remained strong after we controlled for demographic factors, depressive symptoms, agreeableness, and other positive and negative relationship factors. Furthermore, declines in negative affect over the 10-year period mediated the prospective association between responsiveness and cortisol slope. These findings suggest that diurnal cortisol may be a key biological pathway through which social relationships affect long-term health.

Purpose in life predicts allostatic load ten years later

OBJECTIVEnLiving a purposeful life is associated with better mental and physical health, including longevity. Accumulating evidence shows that these associations might be explained by the association between life purpose and regulation of physiological systems involved in the stress response. The aim of this study was to investigate the prospective associations between life purpose and allostatic load over a 10-year period.nnnMETHODSnAnalyses were conducted using data from the Midlife in the United States (MIDUS) survey. Assessment of life purpose, psychological covariates and demographics were obtained at baseline, while biomarkers of allostatic load were assessed at the 10-year follow-up.nnnRESULTSnWe found that greater life purpose predicted lower levels of allostatic load at follow-up, even when controlling for other aspects of psychological well-being potentially associated with allostatic load. Further, life purpose was also a strong predictor of individual differences in self-health locus of control-i.e., beliefs about how much influence individuals can exert on their own health-which, in turn, partially mediated the association between purpose and allostatic load. Although life purpose was also negatively linked to other-health locus of control-i.e., the extent to which individuals believe their health is controlled by others/chance-this association did not mediate the impact of life purpose on allostatic load.nnnCONCLUSIONnThe current study provides the first empirical evidence for the long-term physiological correlates of life purpose and supports the hypothesis that self-health locus of control acts as one proximal psychological mechanism through which life purpose may be linked to positive biological outcomes.

Daily Self-Disclosure and Sleep in Couples

OBJECTIVEnAn emerging literature provides evidence for the association between romantic relationship quality and sleep, an important factor in health and well-being. However, we still know very little about the specific relationship processes that affect sleep behavior. Therefore, the goal of this study was to examine how self-disclosure, an important relational process linked to intimacy, relationship satisfaction, and health, is associated with sleep behavior.nnnMETHODnAs part of a larger study of family processes, wives (n = 46) and husbands (n = 38) from 46 cohabiting families completed 56 days of daily diaries. Spouses completed evening diaries assessing daily self-disclosure, relationship satisfaction, and mood and morning diaries assessing the prior nights sleep. Multilevel modeling was used to explore the effects of both daily variation in and average levels across the 56 days of self-disclosure on sleep.nnnRESULTSnDaily variation in self-disclosure predicted sleep outcomes for wives, but not for husbands. On days when wives self-disclosed more to their spouses than their average level, their subjective sleep quality and sleep efficiency that night improved. Furthermore, daily self-disclosure buffered the effect of high negative mood on sleep latency for wives, but not husbands. In contrast, higher average levels of self-disclosure predicted less waking during the night for husbands, but not for wives.nnnCONCLUSIONnThe association between self-disclosure and sleep is one mechanism by which daily relationship functioning may influence health and well-being. Gender may play a role in how self-disclosure is associated with sleep.

A naturalistic observation study of the links between parental depressive symptoms and preschoolers' behaviors in everyday life.

Previous research has shown that parental depressive symptoms are linked to a number of negative child outcomes. However, the associations between parental depressive symptoms and actual child behaviors in everyday life remain largely unknown. The aims of this study were to investigate the links between parental depressive symptoms and everyday child behaviors and emotional language use using a novel observational methodology, and to explore the potential moderating role of parent-child conflict. We tracked the behaviors and language use of 35 preschool-aged children for two 1-day periods separated by one year using a child version of the Electronically Activated Recorder, a digital voice recorder that records ambient sounds while participants go about their daily lives. Parental depressive symptoms were positively associated with multiple problem behaviors among children (i.e., crying, acting mad, watching TV) when measured both concurrently and prospectively, and with negative emotion word use prospectively. Further, the links between parental depressive symptoms and child crying were moderated by parents perceptions of parent-child conflict. This study offers the first empirical evidence of direct links between parental depressive symptoms and child behaviors in daily life and presents a promising research tool for the study of everyday child behaviors.

Naturalistically observed conflict and youth asthma symptoms.

OBJECTIVEnTo investigate the links between naturalistically observed conflict, self-reported caregiver-youth conflict, and youth asthma symptoms.nnnMETHODnFifty-four youth with asthma (age range: 10-17 years) wore the Electronically Activated Recorder (EAR) for a 4-day period to assess interpersonal conflict and caregiver-youth conflict as they occur in daily life. Conflict also was assessed with baseline self-report questionnaires and daily diaries completed by youth participants and their caregivers. Asthma symptoms were assessed using daily diaries, baseline self-reports, and wheezing, as coded from the EAR.nnnRESULTSnEAR-observed measures of conflict were strongly associated with self-reported asthma symptoms (both baseline and daily diaries) and wheezing coded from the EAR. Further, when entered together in regression analyses, youth daily reports of negative caregiver-youth interactions and EAR-observed conflict uniquely predicted asthma symptoms; only EAR-observed conflict was associated with EAR-observed wheezing.nnnCONCLUSIONnThese findings demonstrate the potential impact of daily conflict on youth asthma symptoms and the importance of assessing conflict as it occurs in everyday life. More broadly, they point to the importance of formulating a clear picture of family interactions outside of the lab, which is essential for understanding how family relationships get under the skin to affect youth health.