TY - JOUR
T1 - Examining the effects of couples' real-time stress and coping processes on interaction quality
T2 - Language use as a mediator
AU - Lau, Kevin K.H.
AU - Randall, Ashley
AU - Duran, Nicholas
AU - Tao, Chun
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2019 Lau, Randall, Duran and Tao.
PY - 2019/1/15
Y1 - 2019/1/15
N2 - Stress in romantic relationships is an all-too-common phenomenon that has detrimental effects on relationship well-being. Specifically, stress can lead to negative interactions between partners and ultimately decrease relationship functioning. The systemic-transactional model of dyadic coping posits that by effectively communicating stress and coping with one's romantic partner, couples can mitigate the deleterious effects of stress. Specifically, partners can engage in positive dyadic coping, which may foster couples' sense of "we-ness," strengthen their emotional connection, and facilitate their understanding of each other's stressful experiences. However, these associations have not yet been examined during partners' real-time stress conversations. When assessing dyadic coping, a particular aspect of interest is partners' language use (i.e., pronouns, emotion words, and cognition words), as it may reflect the types of support they communicate to one another. Using real-time interaction data from 41 heterosexual couples, this study examined how couples' stress and coping processes affect perceived interaction quality following discussions of stress. Specifically, language use (i.e., pronouns, emotion words, and cognition words) was assessed as a mediator on the association between observed stress communication and perceived interaction quality. Overall, results supported our hypotheses; when one partner communicated stress, the other partner responded with language use indicative of different types of dyadic coping (i.e., more you-talk and use of emotion words, less we-talk, I-talk, and use of cognition words), which were in turn associated with interaction quality in mixed directions. Implications of these findings for romantic couples are discussed.
AB - Stress in romantic relationships is an all-too-common phenomenon that has detrimental effects on relationship well-being. Specifically, stress can lead to negative interactions between partners and ultimately decrease relationship functioning. The systemic-transactional model of dyadic coping posits that by effectively communicating stress and coping with one's romantic partner, couples can mitigate the deleterious effects of stress. Specifically, partners can engage in positive dyadic coping, which may foster couples' sense of "we-ness," strengthen their emotional connection, and facilitate their understanding of each other's stressful experiences. However, these associations have not yet been examined during partners' real-time stress conversations. When assessing dyadic coping, a particular aspect of interest is partners' language use (i.e., pronouns, emotion words, and cognition words), as it may reflect the types of support they communicate to one another. Using real-time interaction data from 41 heterosexual couples, this study examined how couples' stress and coping processes affect perceived interaction quality following discussions of stress. Specifically, language use (i.e., pronouns, emotion words, and cognition words) was assessed as a mediator on the association between observed stress communication and perceived interaction quality. Overall, results supported our hypotheses; when one partner communicated stress, the other partner responded with language use indicative of different types of dyadic coping (i.e., more you-talk and use of emotion words, less we-talk, I-talk, and use of cognition words), which were in turn associated with interaction quality in mixed directions. Implications of these findings for romantic couples are discussed.
KW - Interaction quality
KW - Language use
KW - Real-time interaction data
KW - Romantic relationships
KW - Stress
KW - Systemic-transactional model
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85059978265&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=85059978265&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.3389/fpsyg.2018.02598
DO - 10.3389/fpsyg.2018.02598
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85059978265
SN - 1664-1078
VL - 9
JO - Frontiers in Psychology
JF - Frontiers in Psychology
IS - JAN
M1 - 2598
ER -