Dyadic Adjustment and Community Involvement in Same-Sex Couples

This study examines the effects of age and involvement in the gay, lesbian, and bisexual community on dyadic adjustment in 62 male and 54 female same-sex couples. Participants completed the Dyadic Adjustment Scale (Spanier, 1976) and scales of political and social involvement in the gay, lesbian, and bisexual community based on Peplau and Cochran (1981). Those in midlife (35 years and older) had significantly lower conflict in matters of affection and sex than those younger (less than 35 years old). Political involvement interacted significantly with gender and age in predicting dyadic consensus scores: Among younger women, greater political involvement was associated with higher dyadic consensus. Inter-partner differences in social involvement were significantly associated with greater dyadic conflict in sex and affection. Inter-partner dyadic adjustment and community involvement scores were positively correlated, in general. Findings support the importance of age in the study of same-sex couples. The implications for conceptualizations of the gay, lesbian, and bisexual communities and dyadic adjustment are discussed.     

Stress,Anxiety, Resilience and Coping in Social Work Students (A Study from India)

Social work is a stressful occupation but continues to attract large numbers of students every year. This study was conducted by undergraduate students of all three cohorts at a women’s-only college in Tiruchirapalli in South India (N = 73). Standardised instruments to assess stress, anxiety, resilience and coping were administered. It was seen that anxiety and stress levels were relatively higher in the first- and third-year students while compared to those in the second year of their course, while resilience and coping was relatively low in the first-year group. Correlations were significantly positive for the stress and anxiety scores as well as the coping and resilience scores. However, it was seen that only the anxiety scores significantly predicted the manifestation of stress in the students. Implications of the findings and the limitations of the study have also been discussed.     

Stress Spillover and Crossover in Same-Sex Couples: Concurrent and Lagged Daily Effects

ABSTRACT

A growing body of literature on romantic relationships demonstrates associations between daily stress and relationship quality; however, this research has largely focused on heterosexual couples. Whereas all couples may experience common external stressors originating outside the relationship (e.g., work and finances), sexual-minority couples may also experience unique stressors due to their sexual orientation (e.g., discrimination or harassment). To address the dearth of literature on the daily experience of stress in same-sex relationships, we examine concurrent (same-day) and lagged (next-day) effects of common external and sexual-minority stressors on relationship quality using 14-day daily diaries from 81 same-sex couples. In doing so, we identify the types of external stress most likely to spill over into the relationship, as well as those vulnerable to crossing over from one partner to the other. We further examine whether the effects are proximal (concurrent) or carry over from one day to the next (lagged). Common external stress was negatively associated with same-day actor and partner relationship quality. Sexual-minority stress demonstrated lagged effects for actor relationship quality, but only for men. Implications for the proximal impact of common external stress and the lagged effects of sexual-minority stress, specifically for men, on relationship quality are discussed.     

Evaluation of a Resilience Intervention to Enhance Coping Strategies and Protective Factors and Decrease Symptomatology

Objective: In this pilot study, the authors examined the effectiveness of a 4-week resilience intervention to enhance resilience, coping strategies, and protective factors, as well as decrease symptomatology during a period of increased academic stress. Participants and Methods: College students were randomly assigned to experimental (n = 30) and wait-list control (n = 27) groups. The experimental group received a psychoeducational intervention in 4 two-hour weekly sessions. Measures of resilience, coping strategies, protective factors, and symptomatology were administered pre- and postintervention to both groups. Results: Analyses indicated that the experimental group had significantly higher resilience scores, more effective coping strategies (ie, higher problem solving, lower avoidant), higher scores on protective factors (ie, positive affect, self-esteem, self-leadership), and lower scores on symptomatology (ie, depressive symptoms, negative affect, perceived stress) postintervention than did the wait-list control group. Conclusions: These findings indicate that this resilience program may be useful as a stress-management and stress-prevention intervention for college students.     

Long-Term Prediction of Relationship Satisfaction and Stability by Stress,Coping, Communication,and Well-Being

In this 10-year longitudinal study, long-term relationship satisfaction and stability were predicted from communication behavior, stress level, physical and psychological well-being, and individual and dyadic coping skills. The predictors were assessed at the beginning of the study. Significant predictors of relationship satisfaction (n = 103 couples) for both men and women were relationship satisfaction in the beginning, and for men additionally their dyadic coping competencies. Significant predictors of relationship stability (N = 162 couples) were relationship length, relationship satisfaction of both men and women, as well as women’s positive communication. The percentage of correct classifications (stable or unstable relationship) over a period of 10 years was 80.3%. Implications for research and prevention as well as the importance of coping skills for relationship outcome are discussed.     

Psychological Distress,Couple Interactions,and Parenting: A Dyadic Analysis of African American Couples

Parental depression is a well‐established risk factor for couple conflict and ineffective or hostile parenting (M. C. Lovejoy, P. A. Graczyk, E. O'Hare, & G. Neuman, 2000; L. M. Papp, M. C. Goeke‐Morey, & E. M. Cummings, 2007). Although research suggests that caregiver depression may impact parenting indirectly via increased conflict between couples (e.g., R. D. Conger et al., 2002), few studies take into account the behaviors of both caregivers in exploring these relations. The goal of the current study is to employ an actor–partner mediator model to examine the complex relations among psychological distress, negative couple interactions, and parenting. Using a sample of 162 African American couples with children, we find evidence that the psychological distress of each caregiver has an effect on couple interactions for both men and women. The effects from each caregivers' distress to parenting are mainly indirect through the interactional behaviors of the mother toward the father, consistent with the father vulnerability hypothesis (e.g., E. M. Cummings, M. Goeke‐Morey, & J. Raymond, 2004).     

Minority Stress and Stress Proliferation Among Same‐Sex and Other Marginalized Couples

Drawing from 2 largely isolated approaches to the study of social stress—stress proliferation and minority stress—the authors theorize about stress and mental health among same‐sex couples. With this integrated stress framework, they hypothesized that couple‐level minority stressors may be experienced by individual partners and jointly by couples as a result of the stigmatized status of their same‐sex relationship—a novel concept. They also consider dyadic minority stress processes, which result from the relational experience of individual‐level minority stressors between partners. Because this framework includes stressors emanating from both status‐based (e.g., sexual minority) and role‐based (e.g., partner) stress domains, it facilitates the study of stress proliferation linking minority stress (e.g., discrimination), more commonly experienced relational stress (e.g., conflict), and mental health. This framework can be applied to the study of stress and health among other marginalized couples, such as interracial/ethnic, interfaith, and age‐discrepant couples.     

Randomized controlled trial of the Resilience and Coping Intervention (RCI) with undergraduate university students

Objective: The purpose of this pilot study was to evaluate the Resilience and Coping Intervention (RCI) with college students. Participants: College students (aged 18–23) from a large Midwest US university who volunteered for a randomized controlled trial during the 2015 spring semester. Methods: College students were randomly assigned to an intervention (n = 64) or a control (n = 65) group. Intervention participants received three 45-minute RCI sessions over subsequent weeks. All participants completed pre- and post-intervention assessments at the beginning of Week 1 and end of Week 3. Student resilience, coping, hope, stress, depression, and anxiety were assessed. Results. RCI participants reported significantly more hope and less stress and depression from Week 1 to Week 3 compared with control participants. Results for resilience also approached statistical significance. Effect sizes were small to moderate. Conclusions: This study found preliminary evidence that RCI is an effective resilience intervention for use with college students.     

Parenting Stress in Employed and At-Home Mothers in Italy

In Italy, there has been strong cultural support for motherhood as the ideal female role. As increasing numbers of Italian mothers enter the workforce, little is known about the effects of maternal employment. An examination of parenting stress that included work status and Type A Behavior Pattern (TABP) was conducted with 174 employed and at-home mothers in Italy. Higher TABP was associated with higher maternal stress in employed mothers and more stressful parent-child interactions for at-home mothers. The strength of the relationship between parenting stress and TABP varies by maternal work status and parenting stress domain. Considering these results, personality characteristics that are incongruent with feminine gender schema may be especially relevant to the prediction of parenting stress.     

Empathic Accuracy and Aggression in Couples: Individual and Dyadic Links

The authors examined links between intimate partner aggression and empathic accuracy—how accurately partners can read one another's emotions—during highly affective moments from couples' (N = 109) video recall of laboratory‐based discussions of upsetting events. Less empathic accuracy between partners was generally related to higher levels of aggression by both partners. More specific patterns emerged based on the type of aggression and emotion being expressed. Women's poorer ability to read their partners' vulnerable and positive emotions was linked to both men's and women's greater physical and psychological aggression. Moreover, women's inaccuracy in reading their partner's hostility was linked to women's greater psychological aggression toward the men. Men's inaccuracy in reading their partner's hostility was linked to women's (not men's) greater physical and psychological aggression. The results suggest important nuances in the links between empathic inaccuracy and aggression, and implications for prevention and treatment of partner aggression are discussed.     

Relative Contributions of Treatment-Related Changes in Communication Skills and Dyadic Coping Skills to the Longitudinal Course of Marriage in the Framework of Marital Distress Prevention

Most prior studies of skill-based preventive interventions for couples compare changes in problem-solving behaviors made by treated couples with those made by control couples. Unexpected findings in these studies highlight the need to examine within-group variability in behavior change among treated couples, alternative behavioral domains, including dyadic support and coping, and partners' intended and actual use of strategies taught in the interventions. A 24-month longitudinal study of 109 couples participating in an 18-hour intervention designed to enhance communication and dyadic coping revealed that marital outcomes are enhanced to the extent that (a) wives increase their positive problem-solving behavior and husbands decrease their negative problem-solving behavior over the course of the intervention, and (b) wives and husbands increase their positive dyadic coping behaviors, and husbands decrease their negative dyadic coping behaviors. Moreover, greater postintervention use of strategies taught in the intervention program produced better outcomes, and wives' improvements in positive and negative dyadic coping strengthened associations between strategy use and relationship satisfaction. Discussion emphasizes the importance of devising interventions that target key interpersonal processes and that motivate participants to display newly acquired behaviors.     

Language Acculturation,Acculturation‐Related Stress,and Marital Quality in Chinese American Couples

The current study examines the longitudinal indirect pathways linking language acculturation to marital quality. Three waves of data were collected from 416 Chinese American couples for 8 years (M_age.wave1 = 48 for husbands, 44 for wives). Actor–partner interdependence model analyses revealed that for both husbands and wives, lower levels of language acculturation were associated with higher levels of stress over being stereotyped as a perpetual foreigner. Individuals' foreigner stress, in turn, was directly related to greater levels of their own and their partners' marital warmth, suggesting that foreigner stress may have some positive relational effects. However, individuals' foreigner stress also was associated with increases in their own depressive symptoms, which predicted higher levels of marital hostility in the partner. Overall, these results underscore the complexity of how language acculturation and foreigner stress relate to marital quality and the importance of considering the interdependence of the marital system.     

Effects of Love Styles on Marital Satisfaction in Heterosexual Couples: A Dyadic Approach

The main objective of this study was to test Actor-Partner Interdependence Models (APIM) describing the relationship between wives' and husbands' love styles and marital satisfaction within heterosexual couples (n=146 couples). Love styles (i.e., Eros, Ludus, Storge, Mania, Pragma, Agape) were set out in Lee's theory of love, which defines love as an attitude, meaning a predisposition to think, feel, and behave toward one's partner. Six APIMs representing each love style were tested using a path analysis procedure. Length of marriage and wives' and husbands' depressive moods were entered into the models as control variables. The results revealed that among the love styles, only Eros contributed to marital satisfaction for both men and women. However, our results showed that wives' Eros style had a positive impact on husbands' marital satisfaction, whereas husbands' Eros style did not influence wives' marital satisfaction.     

Couple Resilience to Economic Pressure Over Time and Across Generations

Research suggests that economic stress disrupts perceived romantic relationship quality, yet less is known regarding the direct influence of economic stress on negative behavioral exchanges between partners over time. Another intriguing question concerns the degree to which effective problem solving might protect against this hypothesized association. To address these issues, the authors studied two generations of couples who were assessed approximately 13 years apart (Generation 1: N = 367, Generation 2: N = 311). On average and for both generations, economic pressure predicted relative increases in couples' hostile, contemptuous, and angry behaviors; however, couples who were highly effective problem solvers experienced no increases in these behaviors in response to economic pressure. Less effective problem solvers experienced the steepest increases in hostile behaviors in response to economic pressure. Because these predictive pathways were replicated in both generations of couples, it appears that these stress and resilience processes unfold over time and across generations.     

Coping with workplace minority stress: Associations between dyadic coping and anxiety among women in same-sex relationships

ABSTRACT

Sexual minorities are exposed to stressors in the workplace (workplace minority stress), which can be detrimental for well-being (e.g., levels of anxiety). The present study examined whether a particular set of relationship processes, dyadic coping, served to moderate the association between workplace minority stress and symptoms of anxiety. Using a dyadic sample of 64 female same-sex couples, we found that partner problem-focused supportive dyadic coping (DC) and emotion-focused supportive DC (marginally) buffered, whereas partner delegated DC and negative DC did not moderate, the association between workplace minority stress and symptoms of anxiety. Implications for relationship researchers and mental health practitioners are discussed.     

The Dyadic Effects of Controlling Emotional Abuse on Subjective Emotional Experience in Iranian Older Married Couples

This randomised control trial study examines the impact of an emotional‐focused intervention on emotional abuse and subjective emotional experience in Iranian older married couples. In the study, 57 older couples were randomly assigned into control and experimental groups with the latter taking part in an intervention program over 4 weeks, twice a week, with sessions lasting 90 minutes. In the experimental group, significant improvements were found for reducing emotional abuse behaviours and increasing subjective emotional experience. Dyadic analysis revealed that a partner's ability to control their own emotional abuse significantly effects both his/her subjective emotional experience and that of their spouse.     

Analysis of Pre and Posttest Gender Differences in Family Satisfaction of Divorce Mediation Couples

To determine if divorcing spouses experience the family reorganization process through mediation differently, we tested divorcing couples before and after child custody/visitatior mediation, using the Family Satisfaction scale. The pretest family satisfaction scores of husbands as a group were significantly lower than those of the wives (p = .004), but significantly improved after mediation (p = .005). The family satisfaction of wives as a group did not change. Within-couple differences in family satisfaction did not change for either spousal group before and after mediation, an indication that an improvement in the family satisfaction of the husband is not necessarily at the expense of the wife.     

Coparenting and Father Involvement in Married and Unmarried Coresident Couples

Children can benefit from involved fathers and cooperative parents, a benefit which may be particularly important to the growing population of children born to unmarried parents. This study observes father involvement and coparenting in 5,407 married and unmarried cohabiting couples with a 2‐year‐old child in the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study–Birth Cohort (ECLS‐B). A link was found between cooperative coparenting and father involvement for all couples. Compared with married couples, couples who married in response to the pregnancy and couples who remained unmarried showed higher levels of father involvement and more cooperative coparenting, indicating a potentially greater child focus.     

The Role of Religion in Parenting Satisfaction and Parenting Stress Among Young Parents

Using data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health, we examine how religious characteristics affect parenting satisfaction and stress among young parents, and how these relationships vary by gender and relationship status. Results indicate that religiosity is associated with higher parenting satisfaction, and differences across religious traditions are observed for parenting stress. These relationships are generally not moderated by gender or relationship status, suggesting religion influences parenting satisfaction and stress similarly across these contexts. Religion has a generally positive influence on parenting attitudes among young parents—both mothers and fathers—in diverse family structures.