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- Honey don’t stress me out! Cortisol stress resonance in romantic couples and its relation to relationship satisfaction and dyadic coping style

2024; Elsevier BV; Volume: 160; Linguagem: Inglês

10.1016/j.psyneuen.2023.106841

1873-3360

Maria Meier, Bernadette Denk, Julian Packheiser, Stephanie J. Dimitroff, Elea S. C. Klink, Sebastian Ocklenburg, Jens C. Pruessner,

Stress Responses and Cortisol

Stress has an immediate impact on physiology and behavior. These changes likely impact our interactions with others, especially, if we are emotionally close to them (e.g., romantic partners). To date, the underpinnings and consequences of this stress resonance are poorly understood. We thus investigated stress resonance in romantic partners, and how it affects partner interaction. Overall, N=75 couples (150 individuals, age mean=22.69, SD=2.97; 52% female) participated and partners were separated upon arrival. N=38 couples were assigned to the stress condition, in which one of the partners underwent the socially evaluated cold pressor test, while their partner underwent a non-stressful control task. In the control conditions, both partners underwent the control task. Upon reunion, partners completed different synchronization tasks and questionnaires. The dyadic coping inventory was used to measure dyadic coping style, and the relationship assessment scale indexed relationship satisfaction. Saliva cortisol samples were collected to capture the endocrine stress response. We will compute cortisol stress resonance and test its association with reported relationship satisfaction and dyadic comping style. The results will be discussed at the conference. Our findings will deepen our understanding of whether stress spreads among romantic partners, and how this contagion associates with relationship quality and dyadic interaction.