Explicit Stress Communication Facilitates Perceived Responsiveness in Dyadic Coping

Stress communication, communication satisfaction, and relationship satisfaction: an actor-partner interdependence mediation model

Past research has revealed positive effects of stress communication by oneself and by the partner on relationship satisfaction. However, the mechanisms through which stress communication by oneself and by the partner influence relationship satisfaction have not been well studied. The purpose of the present study was to examine the effects of one's own and the partner's stress communication on relationship satisfaction and the mediating roles of one's own and the partner's communication satisfaction in these associations. A total of 227 unmarried heterosexual couples were recruited. An actor-partner interdependence mediation model was used to examine the hypothesized relationships. The results showed that the actor effects of stress communication on relationship satisfaction were mediated by the actor effects of communication satisfaction. Moreover, the indirect effect of male stress communication on female relationship satisfaction through female communication satisfaction was found to be significant. These findings provide insights into the mechanism through which stress communication influences relationship satisfaction. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.

From stress communication to depressive symptoms among couples facing vision impairment: The mediating role of dyadic coping

Vision impairment is considered one of the most common disability worldwide, can induce considerable stress for both patients and their spouses and may subsequently affect couples' psychological functioning. This study examined whether dyadic coping (DC) mediated the association between stress communication (SC) and depressive symptoms among couples coping with one partner's vision impairment. A total of 99 Swiss couples completed questionnaires assessing SC, various types of DC, and depressive symptoms. An Actor-Partner Interdependence Mediation Model was performed. Results showed that (1) the more one partner communicated stress, the less the other partner perceived negative DC and, consequently, the less the partner perceiving negative DC reported depressive symptoms; (2) the more partners communicated stress, the more they and their partners engaged in common DC and, consequently, the less the partner engaging in common DC reported depressive symptoms; (3) the more partners communicated stress, the less they and their partners engaged in protective buffering and, consequently, the less the partner engaging in protective buffering reported depressive symptoms. This pattern of associations occurred similarly for patients and their spouses. Our findings underline the interpersonal experience of vision impairment within couples and the importance of fostering explicit SC and common DC in psychosocial rehabilitation interventions directed at couples facing one partner's vision impairment.

Impact of Rumination, and Dyadic Coping on Parenting Sense of Competence Among Puerperal Women in China: A Cross-sectional Study

PURPOSE

This study aimed to explore the potential categories of parenting sense of competence and to analyze the influence of rumination and dyadic coping on the potential categories of parenting sense of competence.

METHODS

A total of 199 postpartum women who met the criteria were surveyed from a tertiary grade-A hospital in Shanxi (China) from May 2023 to August 2023. The instruments included the general demographic characteristics, Chinese version of parenting sense of competence scale, Chinese event related rumination inventory, and Chinese version of dyadic coping inventory. Latent profile analysis (LPA) was used to classify the parenting sense of competence in postpartum women, and logistic regression analysis was used to identify the influencing factors.

RESULTS

The characteristics of parenting sense of competence in postpartum women can be divided into two potential categories, namely, easy-to-satisfy group (39.3%) and strict-demand group (60.7%). Logistic regression analysis showed that years of marriage, place of residence, deliberate rumination, and dyadic coping were the influencing factors of the potential categories of parenting sense of competence in postpartum women (p < .05).

CONCLUSIONS

Through Latent profile analysis (LPA) analysis, it was found that postpartum women's parenting sense of competence exhibits different characteristics. Clinical workers should identify the characteristics and influencing factors of different categories of women and adopt targeted intervention strategies to promote the level of parenting sense of competence.

Couples' experiences of coping with Multiple Sclerosis: a qualitative systematic review and metasynthesis

PURPOSE

This systematic review sought to synthesise the qualitative literature exploring couples' experiences of dyadic coping, when one partner has Multiple Sclerosis (MS).

METHODS

The review protocol was pre-registered with PROSPERO. Five databases (PubMed, EMBASE, CINAHL, PsycINFO and Scopus) were searched for relevant papers from inception to January 2024. Seven hundred and ninety three papers were screened against pre-defined inclusion criteria. Data from 11 studies (n = 204) were quality assessed using the Critical Appraisal Skills Programme qualitative checklist and included in the metasynthesis.

RESULTS

The synthesis resulted in four themes related to couples' experiences of coping with MS: dance of accommodation, a sense of unity, outside of us and evolving as a unit. Communication attunement was perceived as key for couples to maintain cohesion in the relationship. Developing a shared narrative around MS helped couples to align their perspectives and co-ordinate their coping. The findings suggest that many couples coped by consciously maintaining a focus in the present. The wider system of social supports also appeared to frame the couples unique dyadic coping process in specific ways.

CONCLUSIONS

The findings from this synthesis provide support for the conceptualisation of MS as a shared experience to support couples' rehabilitation efforts.

Positive sexuality, relationship satisfaction, and health: a network analysis

Introduction

Positive sexuality, defined as the happiness and fulfillment individuals derive from their sexual experiences, expressions, and behaviors, has been linked to relationship satisfaction and health. However, the intricate associations between positive sexuality and relationship functioning and health indicators have rarely been explored from a network perspective. This approach, by analyzing the interconnections among these factors within a broader system, can offer insights into complex dynamics and identify key variables for targeted interventions.

Methods

The present study applied network analysis to uncover interconnections between positive sexuality, relationship satisfaction, and health indicators, highlight the most relevant variables and explore potential gender-based differences in a sample of 992 partnered individuals (51% women, aged 18-71 years). Networks were estimated via Gaussian Graphical Models, and network comparison test was used to compare men and women.

Results

Results indicated that variables related to positive sexuality were more highly interconnected than the rest of the network. There were small-to-negligible connections between positive sexuality and relationship satisfaction variables, both of which had negligible or no connections with health. The network was globally invariant across gender, though a few connections were gender-specific. The most important variables, regardless of gender, related to pleasurable feelings during sexual intercourse.

Discussion

The findings underscore the importance of enhancing positive sexual experiences within intimate relationships and have implications for research and clinical practice in positive sexuality.

Association Between Dyadic Coping and Quality of Life in Breast Cancer Patients and Their Spouses: An Actor-partner Interdependence Mediation Model

PURPOSE

This study aims to examine the relationship between dyadic coping (DC), intimate relationship, and quality of life (QOL), and to explore the mediating role of intimate relationship in patients with breast cancer (BC) and their spouses from a dyadic perspective.

METHODS

A cross-sectional design was used in this present study, and 205 dyads of BC patients and their spouses who completed a sociodemographic and clinical questionnaire and self-reported measures assessing their DC, intimate relationship, and QOL were recruited. The actor-partner interdependence mediation model (APIMeM) was adopted for dyadic distinguished data analysis. The paired t-test, Pearson's correlation coefficients, and the structural equation model were employed for data analysis by using SPSS 22.0 and Amos 24.0.

RESULTS

The current study revealed that, for BC patients and their spouses, intimate relationship mediates completely the actor effect of DC on QOL. That is to say, DC was positively related to intimate relationship and then improved QOL. It was interesting to find that, for both patients and their spouses, the intimate relationship could exert a partner-actor complete mediation effect between DC and QOL.

CONCLUSIONS

The DC perceived by both BC patients and their spouses has significant actor effects on QOL by improving the level of an intimate relationship. Furthermore, intimate relationship has significant actor-actor and partner-actor complete mediation effects for both patients and their spouses. Given the vital role of patient-spouse dyads, nursing staff should take patients' spouses into account when conducting related psychosocial interventions aiming to improve the QOL of BC patients and their spouses.

Family Resilience and Dyadic Coping during the Outbreak of the COVID-19 Pandemic in Italy: Their Protective Role in Hedonic and Eudaimonic Well-Being

The COVID-19 pandemic outbreak has dramatically worsened people's psychological well-being. Our aim was to examine for the first time the concurrent and longitudinal relations of family resilience with hedonic and eudaimonic well-being, and the moderating role of socio-demographics. For people having a romantic partner, we also explored whether family resilience and dyadic coping were uniquely related to well-being. One cross-sectional study (N = 325) and one 10-week follow-up study (N = 112) were carried out during the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic (April-May 2020) in Northern Italy. Adult participants completed an online questionnaire in both studies. Correlation, multivariate regression, and moderation analyses were carried out with IBM SPSS version 28 and its PROCESS macro. Significance of differences in correlation and regression coefficients was tested through Steiger's procedure, Wald test, and SUEST method. Family resilience was found to relate more strongly to eudaimonic (versus hedonic) well-being concurrently and to hedonic (versus eudaimonic) well-being longitudinally. The concurrent or longitudinal relations with hedonic well-being were generally stronger for females, part-time workers, and people undergoing multiple stressors. For people having a romantic partner, family resilience was concurrently associated with well-being independently of dyadic coping, whereas dyadic coping was longitudinally related to well-being independently of family resilience. Family resilience was found to protect, in the short term, the psychological well-being of people facing the pandemic outbreak. Its protective role mainly concerned hedonic well-being and was more pronounced for more vulnerable people. For persons having a romantic partner, however, dyadic coping seemed to have equal, if not greater, positive short-term effects.

Relations Between Stress-Adapted Communication Skills and Toxic Social Networks Among Young Adults with Childhood Adversity

Adverse childhood experiences are associated with deleterious outcomes across the lifespan. However, some individuals who grow up in adverse environments may develop stress-adapted skills or resilience factors that enable them to function in their current lived environments. This study explored whether communication is a stress-adapted skill among young adults with co-occurring forms of childhood adversity and the extent to which these communication skills are implicated in toxic social networks. This cross-sectional study included 384 young adults, ages 18-35 years, who completed an online survey. Mixture modeling was used to conduct latent class models estimating subgroups of young adults with co-occurring forms of early adversity; then, regression models estimated the association between communication skills and toxic social networks among subgroups. Four latent classes were identified: (1) high childhood adversity; (2) high to moderate household dysfunction and emotional abuse; (3) high emotional abuse and moderate physical abuse and emotional neglect; and (4) low or no childhood adversity. Results from regression models indicate that participants classified in the high emotional abuse and moderate physical abuse and emotional neglect class had more adaptive communication skills with friends than their counterparts in the low or no childhood adversity class, and participants in the high childhood adversity or low or no childhood adversity classes with higher communication skills were less likely to report toxic social networks. Findings suggest that stress-adapted communication skills may be one resilience factor that supports adaptation among young adults with early adversity exposures.

Workers' individual and dyadic coping with the COVID-19 health emergency: A cross cultural study

The aim of this study was to examine workers' psychological distress during the COVID-19 pandemic as a function of their individual coping, dyadic coping, and work-family conflict. We also tested the moderating role of gender and culture in these associations. To achieve this aim, we run HLM analyses on data from 1521 workers cohabiting with a partner, coming from six countries (Italy, Spain, Malta, Cyprus, Greece, and Russia) characterized by various degrees of country-level individualism/collectivism. Across all six countries, findings highlighted that work-family conflict as well as the individual coping strategy social support seeking were associated with higher psychological distress for workers, while the individual coping strategy positive attitude and common dyadic coping were found to be protective against workers' psychological distress. This latter association, moreover, was stronger in more individualistic countries.

The role of emotion regulation in couples' stress communication and dyadic coping responses

Partners' ability to cope together in the face of stress-commonly known as dyadic coping (DC)-can promote individual and couple well-being. However, little is known about the predictors of DC, including partners' emotion regulation. This study examined (a) whether emotion regulation abilities are associated with partners' DC responses, and (b) whether these associations are mediated by partners' engagement in stress communication in a community sample of different-gender couples (N = 239). Couples completed self-report measures to assess their stress communication and DC responses (supportive, negative, and common DC) and six dimensions of emotion regulation (emotional awareness, acceptance, clarity, goal-orientation, regulation strategies, and impulse control). Results from structural equation modelling analysis confirmed expected associations between stress communication and partners' supportive and common DC responses. Additionally, only associations with women's emotion regulation emerged significant. First, women's emotional awareness was associated with more supportive DC from men and common DC through increases in women's stress communication. Second, women who endorsed emotional acceptance engaged in less supportive DC towards their partner. Third, women's goal-orientation was associated with less supportive DC from each partner and common DC through decreases in men's stress communication. There were no associations with men's emotion regulation. Collectively, findings suggest that although women may manage their negative emotions in ways that are adaptive for their individual well-being, these benefits may not always affect relationship functioning in the same way. Clinical implications and future research directions are discussed.

Couples Coping Together: A Scoping Review of the Quantitative and Qualitative Evidence and Conceptual Work Across Three Decades

Dyadic coping (DC), how couples cope together to deal with a stressor like chronic illness, has received increased attention over the last three decades. The aim of the current study was to summarize the current state of research on DC in couples. We conducted a scoping review of qualitative, quantitative, and mixed-methods studies published between 1990 and 2020, assessing DC in couples during three decades. 5,705 studies were identified in three electronic databases and hand searches. We included 643 sources in this review (with a total of N = 112,923 study participants). Most studies were based in the global North, particularly in the US and Europe. Publication numbers increased constantly over time. A third of study designs were cross-sectional studies followed by qualitative and longitudinal studies. The most prolific DC research areas were related to DC and minor stressors and DC and major physical health stressors. Overall, DC has been established internationally as a highly relevant construct in many disciplines (clinical, social, developmental, personality psychology, social work, nursing etc.). To conclude, the review reveals that future studies should focus on predictors, trajectories, and the importance of very specific DC behaviors for personal and dyadic functioning.

Partners' Consensus About Joint Effort and COVID-19 Prevention Among Sexual Minority Men

The current study examined the relevance of relationship functioning to partners' agreement or consensus about joint effort surrounding COVID-19 prevention. Interdependence theory has been widely used to understand how relationship partners influence health behavior, including how sexual minority male (SMM) couples regulate HIV risk. Couples with better relationship functioning tend to be more successful at negotiating joint (shared) goals and subsequently accomplishing them. The study recruited 134 cis-male, SARS-CoV-2 negative adults in relationships with cis-male partners from phone-based social networking applications. Participants completed an online survey assessing relationship functioning (Perceived Relationship Components Questionnaire), COVID-19 prevention behaviors, and risk perceptions. Partners' consensus around joint COVID-19 prevention effort was assessed using an adapted version of the Preferences for Sexual Health Outcomes scale. Path analyses indicated that consensus for joint prevention effort predicted social distancing (B = 0.23; p = .001) and the number of other COVID-19 prevention behaviors engaged in (B = 0.17; p = .003) above and beyond perceived risk and relationship functioning. Relationship satisfaction predicted higher levels of consensus for joint COVID-19 prevention effort (B = 0.40; p = .029). Findings suggest that the theoretical foundations of successful HIV prevention interventions that utilize joint goal formation may generalize to the prediction of COVID-19 prevention behavior and may be leveraged to mitigate the risk of SARS-CoV-2 infection among SMM in relationships. Interventions that overlook the potential for dyadic regulation of health behavior may miss opportunities to capitalize on shared coping resources and fail to address relational barriers to prevention.

Relationships between dyadic coping, intimate relationship and post-traumatic growth in patients with breast cancer: A cross-sectional study

AIM

To investigate the relationships and pathways between dyadic coping, intimate relationship and post-traumatic growth (PTG) in Chinese patients with breast cancer.

DESIGN

A cross-sectional study.

METHODS

Between November 2019 and November 2020, 133 patients with breast cancer who received therapy in tertiary grade-A hospitals at Dalian, China completed questionnaires including demographic and clinical questionnaires, Locke-Wallace Marriage Adjustment Test, Chinese version of the Dyadic Coping Inventory and Chinese version of the Post-traumatic Growth Inventory. Structural equation modelling was used to analyse the pathways.

RESULTS

Dyadic coping was positively interrelated with PTG and intimate relationship (r = .355, p < .01; r = .213, p < .05); intimate relationship was negatively interrelated with PTG (r = -.207, p < .05). The structural equation model demonstrated adequate fit. Dyadic coping and intimate relationship directly affected PTG (β = .469, p < .05; β = -.309, p < .05). Dyadic coping indirectly affected PTG through intimate relationship (β = -.066, p < .05).

CONCLUSIONS

Dyadic coping was a stimulus factor, but intimate relationship was an obstructive factor in enhancing PTG for the Chinese patients with breast cancer. Furthermore, intimate relationship may have significant mediating effects in the link between dyadic coping and PTG. Strategies that improve dyadic coping level and avoid excessive intimacy relationships between couples contribute to the development of PTG among patients with breast cancer.

IMPACT

The research provides new ideas and intervention entry points for global nurses and psychotherapists so that they can enact and implement targeted PTG intervention plans for patients with breast cancer worldwide.

The Combined Effect of Psychological and Relational Aspects on Cardiac Patient Activation

The literature assumes that activating patients in the treatment is associated with positive health-related outcomes, such as clinical indicators in the normal range, high medication adherence, and low emergency department utilization. In the cardiac population, patient activation, that is the patient's knowledge, skills, confidence, and behaviors needed for managing one's own health and health care, has been less investigated. In addition, limited attention has been given to the role of the partner as an informal caregiver. However, the patient in the care process is rarely alone, and the partner may play a key role in this process. The goal of this dyadic study (N = 100 heterosexual couples with one partner suffering from an acute cardiac event) is to analyze how individual factors (patients' anxiety, depression, medication adherence, pessimistic perception of illness) and the couple's relationship functioning (e.g., different kinds of partner support and dyadic coping) are associated with patient activation. The results showed that patient activation is not a mere question of age. It is positively related to medication adherence and to the partner's support patient activation. It is negatively correlated with the patient's psychological distress, pessimistic perception of illness, and to the partner's hostility. The need for a dyadic approach to both research and intervention with this population is discussed.

Spillover Effects When Taking Turns in Dyadic Coping: How Lingering Negative Affect and Perceived Partner Responsiveness Shape Subsequent Support Provision

When experiencing personal distress, people usually expect their romantic partner to be supportive. However, when put in a situation to provide support, people may at times (still) be struggling with issues of their own. This interdependent nature of dyadic coping interactions as well as potential spillover effects is mirrored in the state-of-the-art research method to behaviorally assess couple's dyadic coping processes. This paradigm typically includes two videotaped 8-min dyadic coping conversations in which partners swap roles as sharer and support provider. Little is known about how such dyadic coping interactions may feed back into one another, impacting the motivation and ability to be a responsive support provider. In three behavioral studies, we examined how sharers' experiences may spill over to affect their own support provision in a subsequent dyadic coping interaction. We hypothesized that the extent to which sharers perceive their partner as responsive to their self-disclosure increases the quality of their own subsequent support provision (Hypothesis 1), whereas sharers' lingering negative affect reduces the quality of their own subsequent support provision (Hypothesis 2). In line with our first hypothesis, perceived partner responsiveness predicted the provision of higher-quality support, though primarily as perceived by the partner. Sharers who perceived their partner to have been more responsive were somewhat more likely to subsequently engage in positive dyadic coping and were rated as more responsive by their partners. Negative dyadic coping behavior was unaffected. Evidence for our second hypothesis was mixed. While lingering negative affect did not affect positive dyadic coping behavior or perceived support, it did increase the chances of negative dyadic coping behavior. However, given the very low occurrences of negative affect and negative dyadic coping, these findings should be interpreted with caution. Taken together, these findings suggest that support interactions may feed back into one another, highlighting the complex and interdependent nature of dyadic coping. The strongest and most consistent findings concerned the spillover effect of perceived partner responsiveness on subsequent perceived support quality, speaking to the key role of believing that one's partner is responsive to one's needs in promoting healthy relationship functioning.

Together Against COVID-19 Concerns: The Role of the Dyadic Coping Process for Partners' Psychological Well-Being During the Pandemic

The situation caused by the 2019 coronavirus disease (COVID-19) has been representing a great source of concern and a challenge to the psychological well-being of many individuals around the world. For couples in particular, this extraordinary rise in concern, combined with the stress posed by the virus containment measures, such as prolonged cohabitation and lack of support networks, may have increased the likelihood of couple problems. At the same time, however, COVID-19 concerns may have been a stimulus to activate couples’ stress management processes. A couple’s resource, which may have an important role in dealing with COVID-19 concerns and stress, is dyadic coping, i.e., the process through which partners face stress together. Drawing on a sample of 1,823 Italian individuals involved in a couple relationship, the current study tested a serial mediation model in which concerns about COVID-19 predicted psychological well-being, through both explicit stress communication and perceived partner dyadic coping responses. In addition, the study explored whether this dyadic coping process functioned the same way in satisfied and dissatisfied couples. Results showed that concerns about the situation related to COVID-19 significantly threatened individuals’ psychological well-being. However, these concerns positively predicted explicit stress communication, which in turn positively predicted perceived partner’s dyadic coping responses, which finally positively predicted psychological well-being. In addition, in the group of dissatisfied individuals, the association between explicit stress communication and perceived partners’ dyadic coping responses was not significant. The present study adds to the research on couples’ coping by testing for the first time the whole theoretical model of dyadic coping and does so during a global emergency situation. The study also suggests key components of preventive interventions for individuals in couples.

A Postcard From Italy: Challenges and Psychosocial Resources of Partners Living With and Without a Chronic Disease During COVID-19 Epidemic

The new Coronavirus (COVID-19) has been declared a global pandemic by the World Health Organization (WHO). The sudden outbreak of this new virus and the measure of lockdown adopted to contain the epidemic have profoundly changed the lifestyles of the Italian population, with an impact on people's quality of life and on their social relationships. In particular, due to forced and prolonged cohabitation, couples may be subject to specific stressors during the epidemic. In addition, living with a chronic health condition may add specific challenges to the ones posed by the epidemic itself. The present cross-sectional study aimed to provide a picture of the challenges as well as the resources for both individual and relational well-being of Italian individuals in a couple relationship (N = 1921), with a specific attention to the comparison between individuals living with and without a chronic disease. Results showed that people with a chronic disease had lower psychological well-being and more fears and worries about the COVID-19. People with a chronic disease perceived fewer resources than healthy people. Moreover, the challenges are shown to be associated with less psychological well-being and high pessimism about the future. Instead individual, relational, and social resources play a protective role during the pandemic for both healthy and chronically ill people.

Why Family Communication Matters: the Role of Co-rumination and Topic Avoidance in Understanding Post-Disaster Mental Health

Although families can be a source of support post-disaster, depending on how they communicate about their stress, their attempts at support can be helpful or harmful. This study explored the moderating role of topic avoidance and co-rumination on post-disaster mental health (MH) in a sample of 485 parent-child dyads following severe floods affecting Texas. Parents (69.0% female) and their oldest child between the ages of 10-19 years (M = 13.75 years, SD = 2.56) completed online surveys approximately one-year post-flooding. Participants reported their flood exposure, life stressors since the disaster, topic avoidance, co-rumination, and MH symptoms (posttraumatic stress symptoms [PTSS], depression, anxiety). Structural equation models tested a moderated-mediation model of whether communication processes moderated the associations of flood exposure and life stressors on MH. They did not moderate the association of flood exposure to PTSS, but did have a moderating role for depression and anxiety. At low levels of topic avoidance, there was no association between flood exposure and child anxiety or depression. However, at mean and high levels of topic avoidance, there was a significant, positive association between flood exposure and child anxiety and depression. Co-rumination impacted both parents and children. For parents, there was no association between flood exposure and depression or anxiety when co-rumination was low or mean-level. However, flood exposure increased risk for depression and anxiety at high levels of co-rumination. A similar pattern emerged for children. Results for life stressors were nuanced. Overall, this suggests that communication can influence post-disaster MH.

Openness and Communication Effects on Relationship Satisfaction in Women Experiencing Infertility or Miscarriage: A Dyadic Approach

Openness and communication between partners are key elements of dyadic coping with stress. Our main research question is: what is the impact of these factors on relational satisfaction in spouses struggling with infertility or miscarriage? In the current study, by applying the actor–partner interdependence model to 90 heterosexual couples (N = 180), we examined the link between the spouses’ openness (the Giessen Test), communication (Flexibility and Cohesion Evaluation Scales) and relationship satisfaction (the Marriage Success Scale). Controlling for relevant covariates (communication, own openness and type of stress experienced by the spouses: infertility or miscarriage), a dyadic analysis revealed significant actor (−0.24; p < 0.001) and partner effects (−0.20; p < 0.001). We conclude that the relationship between the perception of the partner’s openness and the relationship satisfaction in women is strong, in the context of the analyzed potential confounding variables. We also observe that the relationship satisfaction in women from the group of infertile spouses is 6.06 points lower compared to women from the group of marriages after miscarriage (p = 0.034).

Usability and Acceptability of a Smartphone App to Assess Partner Communication, Closeness, Mood, and Relationship Satisfaction: Mixed Methods Study

Background

Interpersonal communication is critical for a healthy romantic relationship. Emotional disclosure, coupled with perceived partner responsiveness, fosters closeness and adjustment (better mood and relationship satisfaction). On the contrary, holding back from disclosure is associated with increased distress and decreased relationship satisfaction. Prior studies assessing these constructs have been cross-sectional and have utilized global retrospective reports of communication. In addition, studies assessing holding back or perceived partner responsiveness have not taken advantage of smartphone ownership for data collection and have instead required website access or use of a study-provided device.

Objective

This study aimed to examine the (1) usability and acceptability of a smartphone app designed to assess partner communication, closeness, mood, and relationship satisfaction over 14 days and (2) between-person versus within-person variability of key constructs to inform the utility of their capture via ecological momentary assessment using the participants’ own handheld devices.

Methods

Adult community volunteers in a married or cohabiting partnered relationship received 2 smartphone prompts per day, one in the afternoon and one in the evening, for 14 days. In each prompt, participants were asked whether they had conversed with their partner either since awakening (afternoon prompt) or since the last assessment (evening prompt). If yes, a series of items assessed enacted communication, perceived partner communication, closeness, mood, and relationship satisfaction (evening only). Participants were interviewed by phone, 1 week after the end of the 14-day phase, to assess perceptions of the app. Content analysis was employed to identify key themes.

Results

Participants (N=27; mean age 36, SD 12 years; 24/27, 89% female; 25/27, 93% white and 2/27, 7% Hispanic) responded to 79.2% (555/701) of the total prompts sent and completed 553 (78.9%) of those assessments. Of the responded prompts, 79.3% (440/555) were characterized by a report of having conversed with one’s partner. The app was seen as highly convenient (mean 4.15, SD 0.78, scale: 1-5) and easy to use (mean 4.39, SD 0.70, scale: 1-5). Qualitative analyses indicated that participants found the app generally easy to navigate, but the response window too short (45 min) and the random nature of receiving notifications vexing. With regard to the variability of the app-delivered items, intraclass correlation coefficients were generally <0.40, indicating that the majority of the variability in each measure was at the within-person level. Notable exceptions were enacted disclosure and relationship satisfaction.

Conclusions

The findings of this study support the usability and acceptability of the app, with valuable user input to modify timing windows in future work. The findings also underscore the utility of an intensive repeated-measures approach, given the meaningful day-to-day variation (greater within-person vs between-person variability) in communication and mood.

The relative impacts of disclosure and secrecy: the role of (perceived) target response

This review examines the current trends in understanding the impact of individuals' decisions to either disclose information or continue to conceal it. As a whole, the evidence points to a relative benefit of disclosure over secret-keeping, but with clear cases, in which disclosure may be harmful. Advances in knowledge about factors that shape that impact, new research on the role verbal rumination with a partner following disclosure, and attention to the role of communal coping as an outcome of traumatic disclosures are addressed. In addition, recent re-conceptualization of secret-keeping, and investigations into the burden experienced by confidants are reviewed. Finally, a call for greater attention to the culture-specific impacts of disclosure decisions is made.

If You Shared My Happiness, You Are Part of Me: Capitalization and the Experience of Couple Identity

The way in which individuals react to a partner's disclosure of positive news (capitalization response) is associated with relational well-being. Two studies analyzed the role of couple identity in explaining the association between perceived capitalization responses and relationship quality. A daily diary study (n = 90 couples) revealed that on days people perceived their partners' responses as active-constructive, they reported higher levels of couple identity. A longitudinal two-wave study (n = 169 couples) showed that couple identity mediated the link between active-constructive (for both women and men) and passive-destructive responses (only for men) and relationship quality. Overall, our findings suggest that the experience of the partner's involvement and support in good times contribute to a sense of couple identity, which over the long turn, is associated with partners' relational well-being.