Approach-avoidance goals and relationship problems, communication of stress, and dyadic coping in couples

Do inflammation and relational motivation coordinate having better sex? The interplay between C-reactive protein and relational motivation on sexual well-being

Much evidence on heightened inflammation and social behavior focuses on social withdrawal. Building on recent theory (Muscatell and Inagaki, 2021), we focused instead on the socially affiliative experience of sex. We investigated the interplay between immunology and motivation on sexual well-being among 158 individuals in romantic relationships. Inflammation, indexed by C-reactive protein (CRP), and sexual well-being were measured multiple times over a month. Relational approach motivation (i.e., motivation toward rewards in relationships) was measured at study entry. Results revealed significant associations between CRP and sexual satisfaction and partnered orgasms frequency for those most motivated to approach rewards with their partner. Interaction effects were replicated with relationship-focused psychological correlates of sexual well-being (e.g., touch, shared laughter, social support), but not with individual-focused outcomes (e.g., adapting to change, goal progress). This is one of the first human studies to demonstrate the body and mind coordinating to promote satisfying sexual experiences within romantic relationships.

Rejection in romantic relationships: Does rejection sensitivity modulate emotional responses to perceptions of negative interactions?

BACKGROUND

Rejection is a highly stressful experience and individuals tend to avoid it whenever possible. In intimate relationships, experiences of rejection can shape the interaction dynamics between partners. Highly rejection sensitive people fear that their romantic partner will reject them and they overreact to any ambiguous cues that might indicate rejection. Furthermore, because they focus on the threat of rejection, they may have difficulty disengaging from rejection-related emotions, persevere in a rejection-focused state and have a reduced capacity to regulate their emotions. The prolonged experience of strong negative emotions, together with maladaptive attempts to respond to rejection, may undermine key relationship maintenance processes that contribute to relationship functioning and lead to negative reciprocity in interactions. The goal of the present study was to shed light on how individuals experience rejection-related emotions and determine whether, following perceptions of negative interactions, rejection sensitivity was associated with stronger negative responses and less efficient downregulation of negative emotions. In addition, we examined whether dyadic patterns of rejection sensitivity were associated with negative emotion dynamics following perceptions of negative interactions.

METHODS

The participants (N = 298) were couples experiencing the transition to parenthood. A multilevel modelling approach was used to assess the associations between rejection sensitivity, perceptions of negative interactions and emotional states. The analyses included repeated daily reports for both rejection and emotions.

RESULTS

The results suggest that rejection sensitive individuals do not report higher negative emotions when they perceive negative interactions. Moreover, rejection sensitive men and women did not remain longer in a negative emotional state after they perceived negative interactions with their partner. Finally, when both men and women partners reported higher levels of rejection sensitivity, neither reported having higher negative emotions after experiencing negative interaction perceptions.

CONCLUSIONS

Our findings provide further insights into emotional dynamics and rejection sensitivity in romantic relationships. Our results do not provide evidence for a link between rejection sensitivity and higher negative emotions or slower recovery after reports of negative interactions. If individuals suppress their emotions, they may not benefit from regulation with their partner and instead may protect themselves over their relationships. However, in this context, rejection sensitivity might also not constitute a strong predictor of daily emotion fluctuations, but other variables- such as relationship satisfaction - might. Future research may investigate emotional responses in a sample with higher levels of rejection sensitivity and use more diverse measures of perceptions of negative interactions.

Companionship goals and marital goal concordance contribute to relationship satisfaction partly through dyadic coping in dating couples

BACKGROUND

Marital goals reflect individuals' understanding of the purpose of marriage and could influence the dyadic interactions and satisfaction in intimate relationships. The current study examines how each partner's marital goals and the concordance of marital goals between the partners influence dating couples' relationship satisfaction through dyadic coping.

METHOD

The sample consisted of 200 heterosexual dating couples from Hong Kong. Both partners completed a survey that assessed three types of marital goals, dyadic coping, relationship satisfaction, and other background variables. Path analysis was conducted to estimate the Actor-Partner Interdependence Model (APIM) with each partner's three types of marital goals and marital goal concordance between the two partners as the predictors, each partner's dyadic coping as the mediators, and each partner's relationship satisfaction as the outcomes.

RESULTS

Women's dyadic coping significantly mediated the effects of women's companionship goals and marital goal concordance on both partners' marital satisfaction. Meanwhile, men's dyadic coping significantly mediated the effects of men's companionship goals and marital goal concordance on their own relationship satisfaction.

CONCLUSION

The current study offered the first evidence supporting the importance of marital goals, the goal concordance between the partners, and dyadic coping in dating relationships.

Coping with depression: a narrative study of an online depression community in China

PURPOSE

The goal of this study was to explore the coping strategies of depression sufferers that have worked for them based on the study of an online depression community.

METHODS

We conducted a thematic narrative analysis of 120 stories posted by the members in the largest online depression community in China. MaxQDA version 18 was used to code the data, and the analytic approach was consistent with the category-centred approach of grounded theory.

RESULTS

The study found that the coping strategies mainly include self-reconciliation (e.g., perceiving/accepting feelings, accepting the present self, and holding hope for the future), actions (recreational activities, physical exercise, and engaging in volunteer work), addressing the stressors and symptoms (e.g., staying away from stressors, seeing the doctor), and seeking interpersonal support (e.g., seeking support from family, friends, and peers).

CONCLUSION

The findings revealed the coping strategies that were helpful and examined how they functioned for the affected members, which make up for the lack of attention to the individual experiences of depression sufferers in coping research. The findings also have practical implications for the related education and consultation, providing useful insights for doctors and patients. These ways of coping are based on depression sufferer' anonymous narratives, which can be convincing to clients.

Academic Stress in University Students: The Role of Physical Exercise and Nutrition

The university experience can cause academic stress that, in turn, can lead to comorbidities. Students increasingly face demands and challenges that require a large amount of physical and psychological resources. These circumstances can make them experience physical and mental fatigue, lower their interest in studying, and even lead them to lose control over their academic performance and health. The objective of this work is to determine the relationship between the practice of physical exercise, eating patterns, and academic stress among university students. A questionnaire was administered to 742 students using non-probabilistic sampling. The mean age was 21.24 (DT = 3.8), and 20.1% were men and 79.4% were women. To identify academic stress, the Stress Manifestation Scale of the Students Stress Inventory (SSI) subscale was used; the Mediterranean Diet Score was applied for eating patterns, and the practice of exercise was measured by weekly hours of exercise. The results show that there is a relationship between academic stress and physical exercise, but not with adherence to the Mediterranean Diet. However, there is a relationship between the consumption of "unhealthy" foods exceeding the recommendations for the Spanish population and academic stress. In short, physical activity and diet are variables that are related to psychological well-being. Therefore, they should constitute the backbone of actions designed by university managers to eliminate or reduce stress suffered by students. Finally, the work demonstrates the need to create new scales that consider not only the foods that help alleviate stress but also their portions.

Interdependence of Approach and Avoidance Goals in Romantic Couples Over Days and Months

OBJECTIVES

Despite the centrality of people's approach goals (i.e., approach toward positive outcomes) and avoidance goals (i.e., avoidance of negative outcomes) in romantic relationships, little is known about the interdependence of approach and avoidance relationship goals between partners. Assuming that short-term, state-level goals accumulate into general goal tendencies, the present research tested whether partners' daily (i.e., state level) and aggregated daily (i.e., trait level) approach and avoidance goals are mutually predictive in the short term (after one day) and the long term (after 10-12 months). In addition, we explored whether goal interdependence unfolds differently across adulthood and in relationships of different duration.

METHOD

Approach and avoidance goals were assessed daily on two 14-day measurement-burst occasions that were conducted 10-12 months apart. The sample consisted of N = 456 female-male couples (age: M = 33.6, SD = 13.8 years; relationship duration: M = 9.6, SD = 10.7 years).

RESULTS

We observed significant short- and long-term partner effects in the prediction of couple members' approach and avoidance goals. These partner effects were restricted to trait level and they did not emerge at the state level. Almost all effects were independent of age and relationship duration.

DISCUSSION

The present research underscores the importance of disentangling state- and trait-level goal tendencies when investigating the interdependence of approach and avoidance goals within romantic relationships.

Managing Face while Managing Privacy: Factors that Predict Young Adults' Communication about Sexually Transmitted Infections with Romantic Partners

Sexually transmitted infections (STIs) are among the most common infectious diseases in the United States with nearly 20 million new cases diagnosed each year in young adults (age 15-24). Communicating with romantic partners about STIs can positively influence health outcomes, as treatment can then be sought, yet the discussions themselves can pose several face risks to both the person requesting STI information from a partner and the receiver of that request. This study examines how young adults enact and manage facework strategies in STI-related conversations with romantic partners, using Politeness Theory and Communication Privacy Management Theory as theoretical frameworks. Specifically, this study seeks to understand how self-efficacy in conversations about STIs, intentions to talk about STIs and willingness to communicate about health in general predicts four face response strategies (avoid, communicate with partner/talk, defend self, consider other), and to investigate how boundary permeability moderates each of these relationships. We found that boundary permeability affected the relationships between intentions regarding STIs and the communicate with partner and consider other face management responses in conversations about STIs.

Dyadic adjustment in couples: How partners' social value within couple and emotional competences predict it

Knowing the determinants of couple adjustment is a challenge, both for predicting this adjustment and for helping couples in therapy in the best possible way. We based this study on the Person’s Social Value Theory (Beauvois, J.-L. [1976]. The topic of social conduct evaluation. Connexions, 19, 7-30) which postulates that two dimensions – social utility and social desirability – support self- and other- descriptions. This study aimed to evaluate the way the evaluation of own social value within couple and the evaluation of social value within couple of the partner influence the dyadic adjustment of the spouses. In addition, we took into account the duration of the couples and the emotional competences of the spouses (using the PEC). Participants were the spouses of 152 voluntary heterosexual couples who completed a booklet of questionnaires. The results showed that the two dimensions of person’s social value within couple influence partners' dyadic adjustment but in a different way for men and women and according to the duration of the couples’ relationship. Furthermore, the effect of social value within couple seems to cover partially the classic effect of emotional competences on couple experience and satisfaction. The discussion underlines the relevance and interest of using the social value within the couple in the study of conjugal relationships as well as in counselling couples.

Dyadic coping in personal projects of romantic partners: assessment and associations with relationship satisfaction

In the present study we describe a context-sensitive, personal-projects-based approach to dyadic coping with stress which adapted the Dyadic Coping Inventory (DCI) for the assessment of dyadic coping strategies in stressful personal projects. In a cross-sectional study, 149 heterosexual Hungarian couples provided evaluations pertaining to their dyadic coping experiences in a stressful everyday project. Explorative factor analyses of personal project-related DCI items provided theoretically meaningful factor structures and the resulting subscales showed excellent reliability. The subscales’ predictive validity was tested in two dyadic analyses using the Actor-Partner Interdependence Model (APIM) whereby positive and negative dyadic coping experiences served as predictors of satisfaction with the dyadic coping process in particular, and with the relationship in general as outcomes. Our results showed that satisfaction with dyadic coping in personal projects is predicted only by the dyadic coping experiences of the respondents (the actor effect), while actor and partner effects proved to be predictive of relationship satisfaction. Negative partner experiences related to dyadic coping predicted lower relationship satisfaction of the female partner, while for males the positive experiences of the partner were found to be more predictive. These results confirm that the contextualized assessment of dyadic coping experiences in specific stressful personal projects is a reliable and valid method. Further methodological and theoretical conclusions are discussed.

Stress and Dyadic Coping in Personal Projects of Couples - A Pattern-Oriented Analysis

Relational accounts of goal striving have barely considered dyadic coping as an element of the process, nor has dyadic coping research utilized the unique advantages of the goal construct (e.g., in form of personal project assessment) so far. Therefore, the primary aim of the present study was to explore stress and dyadic coping experiences associated with the personal projects of partners in a close relationship. Moreover, we approached data analysis in a pattern-oriented way, instead of using variable-centered linear models. We used cross-sectional data from 270 married and cohabiting Hungarian heterosexual couples (mean age 40.1 ± 11.2 and 37.8 ± 10.9 years for male and female partners, respectively). Partners individually completed an adapted version of the Personal Project Assessment procedure. First, they named an important but stressful personal project. Respondents appraised their experiences with the chosen personal project along several predefined aspects. These included: (1) stress experiences; (2) dyadic coping, using the adapted Dyadic Coping Inventory; (3) positive emotions; and (4) sense of community. The Relationship Assessment Scale was also assessed. Cluster analysis of both partners' stress experiences, positive and negative dyadic coping strategies in their own personal projects revealed six relationship-level clusters. Cluster solutions represented typical variations of the stress and dyadic coping patterns of the couples, and could be arranged in a three- (lower, medium, and higher stress) by-two (positively vs. negatively balanced dyadic coping pattern) array. Further analyses indicated the general trend that couples with lower (vs. higher) stress together with more positively (vs. negatively) balanced dyadic coping may have experienced better functioning in projects (more positive emotions and higher sense of community) and higher relationship satisfaction. Results confirm that the partners' pursuit of their personal projects is embedded in their relationship, and their functioning in these projects may partly depend on dyadic coping with the stress that arises during the accomplishment of the project. By using a pattern-oriented approach to dyadic data, we were able to distill stress and coping patterns that capture the specific types of couples' relationships and indicate the non-linear and multidimensional nature of stress and dyadic coping processes.