Social contributions to meaning in life: the role of romantic relationship quality, parenting, and gender.

Introduction: The present study tests the association between romantic relationship quality and number of children on meaning in life (i.e., sense of purpose, coherence, and significance) and considers interactions between these constructs and gender. Methods: A survey was conducted approximately one year into the pandemic among 473 individuals in the United States. Results: Models demonstrated that relationship quality and number of children are positively associated with meaning, though relationship quality was more strongly related to meaning for men than women. We showed that for women there was an equally positive link between relationship quality and meaning regardless of number of children. However, for men, the positive association between relationship quality and meaning was strongest for those with more than one child, decreased in magnitude for those with one child, and was no longer significant for men with more than one child. Discussion: These findings provide empirical evidence that social relationships benefit meaning in life and underscore the complexity of these associations. Results have implications for theoretical perspectives on meaning in life, as well as for policies that encourage family wellbeing.

A day in the life: Couples' everyday communication and subsequent relationship outcomes.

Understanding how communication processes contribute to well-functioning versus distressed couple relationships has relied largely on brief, laboratory-based conversations. Harnessing technological advancements, the present study extends the literature by capturing couples' naturalistic communication over one full day at Time 1 (T1). This study tested associations between data-driven categories of couple communication behaviors and relationship outcomes (i.e., relationship aggression, satisfaction, and dissolution) at Time 2 (T2), approximately 1 year later. Emerging adults in different-gender dating couples (n = 106 couples; 212 individuals; Mage = 22.57 ± 2.44; M relationship length = 30.49 months ± 24.05; 72.2% non-White) were each provided a smartphone programmed to audio record approximately 50% of a typical day. Interactions between partners were transcribed and coded for location, activity, affect, and a range of positive and negative communication behaviors for each partner. Even after controlling for T1 assessments of the relevant outcome, one's own hostility and one's partner's hostility at T1 were each positively associated with T2 relationship aggression and negatively associated with T2 relationship satisfaction. One's own withdrawal at T1 was positively associated with T2 relationship aggression perpetration, whereas one's partner's withdrawal was negatively linked to relationship satisfaction at T2. One's own playfulness, unexpectedly, was linked to lower subsequent relationship satisfaction. Withdrawal increased the likelihood of relationship dissolution, whereas warmth and playfulness decreased the likelihood of dissolution. The relevance of couples' ordinary, everyday communication for meaningful relationship outcomes is discussed. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

Anti-Black violence, discrimination, and sleep difficulties amongst racially diverse Americans: The aftermath of the murder of George Floyd.

RATIONALE: Following the murders of George Floyd and other Black Americans during the summer of 2020, there was unprecedented exposure to media-disseminated depictions of anti-Black violence. Little is known about the impact of this widespread form of vicarious racism that was pervasive during that historic time. OBJECTIVE: The present study applies the concept of vicarious racism to study this secondary exposure to anti-Black violence. We investigated negative impacts of anti-Black violence (NIAV) and personal experiences with discrimination in association with sleep difficulties, a critical intermediary health process. METHODS: Racially diverse Americans (N = 487) were recruited to participate in a cross-sectional study using an online survey given between December 11, 2020 and February 11, 2021. RESULTS: Black participants endorsed greater NIAV than Asian, Latinx, and White participants. Moreover, Black, Asian, and Latinx participants reported greater direct discrimination than White participants. NIAV and direct discrimination were each associated with more sleep difficulties. Although associations between NIAV and sleep difficulties did not vary by race, race moderated the association between direct discrimination and sleep difficulties. In addition, direct discrimination moderated the association between NIAV and sleep difficulties in an unanticipated direction: the link between NIAV and sleep difficulties was weaker for those experiencing more direct discrimination. CONCLUSION: Findings suggest that anti-Black violence and police brutality not only impact direct victims but have widespread vicarious impacts on racially diverse Americans, and highlight that vicarious anti-Black racism and discrimination are important issues of public health.

Loss during COVID-19: Moderating effects of meaning and romantic relationships on anxiety and depressive symptoms.

OBJECTIVE: The COVID-19 pandemic exacerbated experiences of loss and grief for many individuals and posed a challenging mental health crisis. Compared to studies examining a singular type of loss, the present study investigated the cumulative impacts of COVID-related losses on anxiety and depressive symptoms and examined whether meaning in life, marital status, or relationship quality offered a protective moderating role. METHOD: A cross-sectional online survey was conducted approximately 1 year into the pandemic among 434 diverse individuals (32.0% White; 52.1% women; Mage = 34.7) in the United States. Measures included: General Anxiety Disorder-7, Patient Health Questionnaire-9, Quality of Marriage Index, and 26 loss items with corresponding grief ratings. RESULTS: Results using linear mixed models demonstrated strong positive links between loss and both anxiety and depressive symptoms, although the association between loss and anxiety was stronger for women. The association between loss and anxiety was attenuated at high levels of meaning in life compared to average and low levels of meaning and for married individuals compared to unmarried participants. Being married also buffered the impact of loss on depressive symptoms. CONCLUSIONS: Findings indicate that cumulative pandemic-related loss is associated with anxiety and depressive symptoms, and that meaning in life and romantic relationships may be promising interventional targets; though, these findings may change over the course of the pandemic. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).

The birth of a story: Childbirth experiences, meaning-making, and postpartum adjustment.

The present study investigated how meaning-making around a birth experience predicts relationship quality and parenting stress across the transition to first-time parenthood, a time that many new parents find stressful and challenging. Childbirth experiences may set the stage for these challenges, and how new parents make meaning of childbirth could play a role in their subsequent postpartum adjustment. Meaning-making processes (sense making, benefit finding, and changes in identity) were coded from birth narratives collected from 77 mixed-sex biological parent dyads (n = 154 individuals) shortly after the birth of their first child. Parents reported on their relationship quality during pregnancy and at 6 months postpartum, and on their parenting stress postpartum. Mothers' greater sense making and benefit finding buffered longitudinal declines in their own relationship quality, and maternal sense making also buffered declines for fathers. Fathers' greater sense making and benefit finding predicted lower levels of their own parenting stress, whereas mothers' greater sense making and benefit finding were linked with higher paternal parenting stress. Finally, fathers' discussion of changes in identity predicted lower levels of parenting stress in mothers. These results suggest the importance of meaning-making following childbirth for couples adjusting to parenthood and highlight the value of studying meaning-making processes dyadically. Clinicians may be able to support new parents by facilitating their coconstruction of meaning during their shared birth experience and transition to parenthood. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).

Relationship satisfaction, feelings of closeness and annoyance, and linkage in electrodermal activity.

Physiological linkage refers to moment-to-moment, time-linked coordination in physiological responses among people in close relationships. Although people in romantic relationships have been shown to evidence linkage in their physiological responses over time, it is still unclear how patterns of covariation relate to in-the-moment, as well as general levels of, relationship functioning. In the present study with data collected between 2014 and 2017, we capture linkage in electrodermal activity (EDA) in a diverse sample of young-adult couples, generally representative and generalizable to the Los Angeles community from which we sampled. We test how naturally occurring, shifting feelings of closeness with and annoyance toward one's partner relate to concurrent changes in levels of physiological linkage over the course of 1 day. Additionally, we examine how linkage relates to overall relationship satisfaction. Results showed that couples evidenced significant covariation in their levels of physiological arousal in daily life. Further, physiological linkage increased during hours that participants felt close to their romantic partners but not during hours that participants felt annoyed with their partners. Finally, those participants with overall higher levels of relationship satisfaction showed lower levels of linkage over the day of data collection. These findings highlight how individuals respond in sync with their romantic partners and how this process ebbs and flows in conjunction with the shifting emotional tone of their relationships. The discussion focuses on how linkage might enhance closeness or, alternatively, contribute to conflict escalation and the potential of linkage processes to promote positive interpersonal relationships. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).

What happens when romantic couples discuss personal loss? Relational, emotional, and physiological impacts.

Does talking about loss with a romantic partner have salutary personal and relationship effects? Prior evidence reveals the benefits of emotional disclosure in couple relationships, yet disclosure about loss has been overlooked in research on couple communication. Using a novel communication paradigm with young-adult heterosexual romantic partners (N = 114 couples), we investigated emotions, physiological arousal (skin conductance responses [SCR]), and relationship closeness when narrating a personal loss and listening to the partner's loss, and compared these loss discussions to discussions about desired relationship changes. Based on partners' self-reports, narrating loss elicited more vulnerable and, unexpectedly, more antagonistic emotions. Both narrating and listening to loss produced higher self-reported partner closeness, compared to discussing change. In support of the physiological benefits of disclosure, women's SCRs decreased over the discussion when they narrated their own loss. However, both women and men as listeners show a general trend of increasing SCRs over the discussion, suggesting the challenges of being a responsive partner. Moreover, in line with the putative protective effects of partners' biological interdependencies, partner closeness also was higher when both partners showed synchronous decreasing SCR as women narrated their loss. Although limited to young couples in relatively short relationships, these findings reveal some potential benefits of talking about loss in the context of romantic relationships. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).

Dating Aggression and Observed Behaviors in a Nonconflictual Situation: The Role of Negative Anticipation.

Past observational studies highlight meaningful behavioral differences between aggressive and nonaggressive couples during conflict interactions. However, research is needed on how aggressive couples communicate in other, nonconflictual interactional contexts. This study investigates how dating partners' perpetration of physical aggression relates to observed behaviors during a laboratory-based discussion during which dating couples planned a date together. We also investigated whether negative anticipation of the upcoming discussion influences dating partners' observed behaviors. Results showed that perpetration of dating aggression from one partner is linked to more negative behaviors from the other partner during the discussion. This association, however, is moderated by negative anticipation of the discussion; the link between aggression from one's partner and negative behaviors is significant at high levels (+1 SD) but not at low levels (-1 SD)of negative anticipation. One's own dating aggression also relates to fewer positive behaviors during the discussion. Findings suggest that couple aggression spills over to and potentially degrades the discussion of even nonthreatening, potentially enjoyable communications. Results also underscore negative anticipation of an interaction as a potential risky process that increases the likelihood of antagonistic exchanges between partners. The discussion addresses putative pathways between partner aggression and generalized communication patterns, and potential bi-directional effects with negative anticipation. We also discuss practical implications and targets of intervention to counteract the establishment of problematic communication dynamics in young couples.

Observed parent-adolescent coalitions and family hostilities during family discussions: Associations with marital aggression.

This study investigated bidirectional associations between observed parent-youth coalitions-wherein one parent and a child align themselves against the other parent-and family hostilities as they evolved in real-time during triadic family conflict discussions. Participants were 102 families with an adolescent child (50% girls, Mage  = 15.3 years, SD = 0.8). Using time-lagged, multilevel models, we tested immediate, temporal influences from hostility (within marital and mother-youth and father-youth relationships) to parent-youth coalitions and vice versa. Guided by sensitization theories, we also investigated whether a history of marital aggression moderated these links. Results indicated multiple concurrent links supporting the interconnectedness of cross generational coalitions and angry, critical exchanges within multiple family relationships. Moreover, time-linked effects demonstrated that hostility within both the marital and parent-adolescent domains preceded subsequent coalitions, and also that coalitions preceded hostility, particularly in the parent-adolescent domain. Findings further demonstrated that marital aggression moderates temporal associations between fathers' marital hostility and father-youth coalitions. These patterns highlight the dynamic links between hostilities and coalitions, how such patterns spill over across family subsystems, and how these two insidious influences in parents' interactions with their adolescent youth may mutually reinforce each other. This study informs intervention efforts by identifying patterns and sequences of family hostilities surrounding parent-youth coalitions during adolescence.

En este estudio se investigaron las asociaciones bidireccionales entre las alianzas observadas entre padres y adolescentes -en las cuales un padre y un hijo se alinean contra el otro padre- y las hostilidades familiares a medida que se desarrollaban en tiempo real durante discusiones triádicas por conflictos familiares. Los participantes fueron 102 familias con un hijo adolescente (el 50% niñas, edad promedio = 15.3 años, desviación típica = 0.8). Utilizando modelos multinivel con tiempo de retardo, evaluamos las influencias inmediatas y temporales de la hostilidad (dentro de las relaciones conyugales y de las relaciones entre madre y adolescente y padre y adolescente) en las alianzas entre padres y adolescentes y viceversa. Guiados por las teorías de sensibilización, también investigamos si los antecedentes de agresión conyugal moderaron estas asociaciones. Los resultados indicaron varias asociaciones simultáneas que respaldaron la interconexión de las alianzas intergeneracionales y los intercambios agresivos y críticos dentro de las relaciones de varias familias. Además, los efectos asociados con el tiempo demostraron que la hostilidad dentro del área conyugal y de padres y adolescentes precedió a alianzas posteriores, y también que las alianzas precedieron a la hostilidad, particularmente en el área de padres y adolescentes. Los resultados también demostraron que la agresión conyugal modera las asociaciones temporales entre la hostilidad conyugal de los padres y las alianzas entre los padres y los jóvenes. Estos patrones destacan las asociaciones dinámicas entre las hostilidades y las alianzas, las maneras en la que dichos patrones se desbordan entre los subsistemas familiares, y cómo estas dos influencias insidiosas en las interacciones de los padres con sus hijos adolescentes pueden reforzarse mutuamente. Este estudio sirve como base para los esfuerzos de intervención, ya que identifica los patrones y las secuencias de las hostilidades familiares que rodean a las alianzas entre los padres y los adolescentes durante la adolescencia.

Fluctuations in pronoun use in everyday life: Understanding couple aggression in context.

Everyday language use, including the pronouns people choose when speaking to romantic partners, may reflect underlying aspects of relationship functioning and may have important implications for understanding couple conflict and dating aggression more generally. The current study measured couples' hour-to-hour "we," "I," and "you" speech in daily life and examined symmetry in pronoun use, or the extent to which partners mirror each other in the frequency of the pronouns they use. First, we examined associations between symmetry in pronoun use and overall levels of dating aggression. Second, we investigated whether aggressive couples evidence patterns of pronoun use distinct from nonaggressive couples when they become annoyed with each other. Multilevel models showed that symmetry in "we" speech and symmetry in "I" speech each were related to lower levels of dating aggression. In addition, symmetry in couples' "you" speech increased during hours of annoyance, but only among those couples reporting high levels of aggression in their relationships. These results demonstrate how everyday language use relates to couples' general tendencies toward aggression and how such patterns are linked to ongoing fluctuations in the emotional tone of the relationship. The discussion focuses on implications for intervention and the use of novel ambulatory assessment methods for capturing couple processes in real-life contexts. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved).

Romantic partner presence and physiological responses in daily life: Attachment style as a moderator.

The present study investigated whether the presence of a romantic partner in daily life is associated with attenuated sympathetic nervous system responses. Additionally, romantic attachment style was tested as a moderator. For one day, 106 heterosexual young adult dating couples wore ambulatory sensors that monitored electrodermal activity (EDA) - an index of sympathetic arousal. Couples reported whether they were together or apart for every hour of the data collection day. Men and women exhibited lower EDA during hours in which their partner was present compared to hours in which they were absent. Additionally, romantic attachment style moderated this association; those who had low anxious attachment showed a stronger attenuating effect of partner presence compared to those with higher anxious attachment. Similarly, those who had low avoidant attachment showed heightened effects of partner presence compared to those with higher avoidant attachment. Romantic partner presence may facilitate everyday health-promoting physiological processes.

A Systematic Review of Respiratory Sinus Arrhythmia in Romantic Relationships.

Respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA), an index of the parasympathetic nervous system, has recently gained attention as a physiological component of regulatory processes, social connectedness, and health. Within the context of romantic relationships, studies have operationalized and conceptualized RSA in disparate ways, obscuring a clear pattern of findings. This systematic review synthesizes the rapidly developing literature and clarifies the role of RSA in romantic relationships. We evaluate support for three conceptual hypotheses: (1) resting baseline RSA is associated with better quality relationships; (2) phasic RSA is reflective of changes in threat and connection during couple interactions; and (3) physiological linkage in RSA between romantic partners relates to positive or negative relationship functioning depending on the nature of the linkage (e.g., in-phase vs. antiphase). We identified 26 empirical studies that tested associations between RSA and an index of romantic relationships (i.e., relationship satisfaction). Our findings show that higher RSA is not uniformly "good" for relationships. Higher resting baseline RSA was contemporaneously associated with better quality relationships, yet higher baseline RSA was also unexpectedly associated with relationship violence. Short-term decreases in RSA were found during relationship conflict, though the opposite-phasic increases in RSA during positive romantic partner interactions-was not found due to mixed empirical support. As expected, evidence for RSA linkage was found, though the connection between linkage and relationship functioning depends on the context in which it was measured. We discuss methodological limitations and directions for future research.

La arritmia sinusal respiratoria (ASR), un índice del sistema nervioso parasimpático, ha sido objeto de atención recientemente como componente fisiológico de los procesos reguladores, la conexión social y la salud. Dentro del contexto de las relaciones amorosas, los estudios han operacionalizado y conceptualizado la ASR de diversas maneras, ocultando un patrón claro de signos. Este análisis sistemático sintetiza la bibliografía que se está desarrollando rápidamente y aclara el papel que desempeña la ASR en las relaciones amorosas. Evaluamos el respaldo de tres hipótesis conceptuales: (1) una ASR de reposo en el momento basal está asociada con relaciones de mejor calidad; (2) la ASR refleja cambios en la amenaza y la conexión durante las interacciones de la pareja; y (3) la asociación fisiológica en la ASR entre los integrantes de la pareja se relaciona con el funcionamiento positivo o negativo de la relación según la índole de la asociación (p. ej.: en fase frente a contrafase). Identificamos 26 estudios empíricos que evaluaron las asociaciones entre la ASR y un índice de las relaciones amorosas (p. ej.: la satisfacción con la relación). Nuestros resultados indican que una ASR más alta no es uniformemente "buena" para las relaciones. Una ASR de reposo más alta en el momento basal estuvo asociada contemporáneamente con relaciones de mejor calidad, sin embargo, una ASR más alta en el momento basal también estuvo asociada inesperadamente con la violencia de pareja. Se encontraron disminuciones de la ASR a corto plazo durante el conflicto en las relaciones, aunque no se encontró lo opuesto -aumentos fásicos en la ASR durante las interacciones positivas de los integrantes de la pareja- debido a un respaldo empírico ambivalente. Como se esperaba, se encontraron indicios de una asociación de la ASR, aunque la conexión entre la asociación y el funcionamiento de la relación depende del contexto en el cual se midió. Comentamos las limitaciones metodológicas y damos indicaciones para investigaciones futuras.

Perspective-Taking and Empathy Mitigate Family-of-Origin Risk for Electronic Aggression Perpetration Toward Dating Partners: A Brief Report.

Electronic dating aggression among emerging adults is prevalent and has adverse consequences, yet factors that increase or decrease the risk for perpetrating electronic aggression against a romantic partner are understudied. This investigation advances the literature in two novel ways. First, based on intergenerational transmission of violence theories, we tested the link between family-of-origin aggression (FOA) history and electronic aggression toward romantic partners, using a diverse sample of emerging adults. Second, we examined whether perspective-taking and empathy each moderated the association between FOA and electronic dating aggression and explored the moderating role of gender. Participants included 359 undergraduate students (50% female; 42% White) from an urban university. Results indicated that greater FOA during childhood was associated with perpetrating greater electronic aggression against romantic partners. Furthermore, significant interactions indicated that perspective-taking and empathy separately buffered these associations. Youth from aggressive families did not exhibit increased electronic dating perpetration when they had higher perspective-taking or empathy. Males were especially sensitive to the protective effects of perspective-taking. Findings highlight potential points of intervention (i.e., cognitive and affective empathy training) to decrease electronic aggression in romantic relationships and break intergenerational cycles of aggression.

The curvilinear effect of mothers' parenting stress and attunement on children's internalizing symptoms: A six wave study of mother-youth dyads across the transition to adolescence.

We aimed to test how deviations in a mother's own parenting stress (PS) levels across her child's transition to adolescence contribute to subsequent changes in her child's internalizing symptom levels. We tested both linear and curvilinear effects, as well as the extent to which a child's perception of his or her mother's attunement alters these links. We further explored whether overall maternal PS levels (relative to the other mothers) further moderate the within-dyad association. These effects were tested in a community sample consisting of 202 mother-child dyads during transition to early adolescence. The dyads were examined within and across six waves, each separated by 6 months. During each wave, the mothers (Mage at baseline = 40.1 years [SD = 6.1]) reported on their PS, while children (Mage at baseline = 10.1 years [SD = .90]) reported on their internalizing symptoms and their perceived maternal attunement. Multilevel within-dyad analyses revealed a U-shaped effect of mothers' PS on concurrent child symptoms, whereas the prospective association was not significant. Maternal attunement moderated the concurrent effects, changing the tipping point at which the concurrent potential benefits of rising PS were outweighed by the potential negative consequences of overburdening the child. Increases in PS prospectively predicted increased symptoms in the child but not when maternal attunement was above the mothers' average level. Global PS levels did not moderate these effects. The results underscore the contribution made by mothers' PS to the emotional trajectories of their children and show that these effects vary as a function of deviations in maternal attunement. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).

A Matter of the Heart: Daytime Relationship Functioning and Overnight Heart Rate in Young Dating Couples.

BACKGROUND: Although past longitudinal research demonstrates that romantic partners affect one another's health outcomes, considerably less is known about how romantic experiences "get under the skin" in everyday life. PURPOSE: The current study investigated whether young couples' naturally occurring feelings of closeness to and annoyance with each other during waking hours were associated with their overnight cardiovascular activity. METHODS: Participants were 63 heterosexual young adult dating couples (Mage = 23.07). Using ecological momentary assessments, couples reported their hourly feelings of closeness to and annoyance with their partners across 1 day; subsequent overnight heart rate was captured through wearable electrocardiogram biosensors. Actor-partner interdependence models tested whether individuals' overnight heart rate varied as a function of (a) their own daytime feelings of closeness and annoyance (actor effects) and (b) their partner's daytime feelings of closeness and annoyance (partner effects) while controlling for daytime heart rate. RESULTS: Although young adults' feelings of romantic closeness and annoyance were unrelated to their own overnight heart rate (i.e., no actor effects), gender-specific partner effects emerged. Young men's nocturnal heart rate was uniquely predicted by their female partner's daytime relationship feelings. When women felt closer to their partners during the day, men exhibited lower overnight heart rate. When women felt more annoyed with their partners during the day, men exhibited heightened overnight heart rate. CONCLUSIONS: The findings illustrate gender-specific links between couple functioning and physiological arousal in the everyday lives of young dating couples, implicating physiological sensitivity to partner experiences as one potential pathway through which relationships affect health.

Investigating the momentary association between maternal support and children's fruit and vegetable consumption using ecological momentary assessment.

Despite compelling evidence that fruit and vegetable (F/V) consumption can reduce the risk of obesity and chronic disease, most children fail to meet the daily recommendations for dietary consumption. Theoretical models and empirical findings suggest that parents play a key role in guiding children's overall dietary behaviors. To extend previous findings, the current study utilized ecological momentary assessment (EMA) on smartphones to assess the within-subject and between-subject effects of maternal support (i.e., encouragement, preparation) of F/V on their child's F/V consumption. Mother-child dyads (n = 191) completed six semi-annual 7-day waves of EMA surveys. EMA assessed mothers' past 2-h support for F/V and children's F/V consumption. At the within-subject level, greater maternal encouragement for F/Vs (OR = 2.41) and maternal preparation of F/Vs (OR = 1.43) than usual were associated with increased odds of their child eating F/V during the same 2-h window. At the between-subject level, greater maternal preparation of F/V (OR = 5.99), compared to other mothers, was associated with increased odds of their child eating F/V. Children with lower BMI (vs. higher BMI) were more likely to consume F/Vs when their mothers encouraged them to eat F/V (OR = 0.74). These findings suggest that maternal support may have a strong and immediate effect on children's F/V consumption. Theoretical models on behavior change should consider how explanatory factors, such as parental support, may vary at the momentary level. Boosting maternal support at the momentary level may be a critical component of future mobile-based interventions to address childhood obesity.

Family aggression and attachment avoidance influence neuroendocrine reactivity in young adult couples.

Family-of-origin aggression (FOA) exposure is a chronic childhood stressor that has been linked to altered stress reactivity of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis in adulthood. The effects of FOA also spill over between partners in romantic couples, such that one partner's FOA history influences the other's HPA reactivity during couple interactions. However, the direction of these effects is inconsistent, with both heightened and blunted HPA reactivity observed; this heterogeneity suggests the presence of moderators. This study measured HPA reactivity during emotionally vulnerable conversations between young adult romantic partners to assess whether romantic attachment avoidance accounts for this divergence by moderating actor and partner effects of FOA on HPA. A total of 112 opposite-sex couples (224 young adults) provided information on FOA and avoidance, completed dyadic interaction procedures, and provided saliva samples to assess HPA reactivity during interactions. Multilevel structural equation models revealed that FOA did not predict either the actor's or the partner's HPA reactivity. However, FOA and avoidance interacted to produce both actor and partner effects, such that greater FOA exposure heightened HPA reactivity when avoidance was high but blunted reactivity when avoidance was low. The results support the conjecture that proximal relationship-related characteristics, such as attachment avoidance, influence whether distal relationship-related stressors, such as FOA, amplify or attenuate physiological reactivity during emotionally vulnerable interactions. Because HPA reactivity has been linked to a variety of health outcomes, identifying relationship-related buffers of associations between FOA and HPA response may inform future interventions to protect health for FOA-exposed youth. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).

Lessons Learned: Recommendations For Implementing a Longitudinal Study Using Wearable and Environmental Sensors in a Health Care Organization.

Although traditional methods of data collection in naturalistic settings can shed light on constructs of interest to researchers, advances in sensor-based technology allow researchers to capture continuous physiological and behavioral data to provide a more comprehensive understanding of the constructs that are examined in a dynamic health care setting. This study gives examples for implementing technology-facilitated approaches and provides the following recommendations for conducting such longitudinal, sensor-based research, with both environmental and wearable sensors in a health care setting: pilot test sensors and software early and often; build trust with key stakeholders and with potential participants who may be wary of sensor-based data collection and concerned about privacy; generate excitement for novel, new technology during recruitment; monitor incoming sensor data to troubleshoot sensor issues; and consider the logistical constraints of sensor-based research. The study describes how these recommendations were successfully implemented by providing examples from a large-scale, longitudinal, sensor-based study of hospital employees at a large hospital in California. The knowledge gained from this study may be helpful to researchers interested in obtaining dynamic, longitudinal sensor data from both wearable and environmental sensors in a health care setting (eg, a hospital) to obtain a more comprehensive understanding of constructs of interest in an ecologically valid, secure, and efficient way.

The Interplay of Friends and Parents in Adolescents' Daily Lives: Towards A Dynamic View of Social Support.

This daily diary study investigated the interplay of perceived friend and parent support in adolescents' everyday lives. Specifically, we tested the interactive effects of friend and parent support on adolescent well-being at both the intra- and inter-individual level. A diverse sample of 119 adolescents (M age=15.36) completed diary reports for two weeks. Multivariate multilevel models demonstrated that on days adolescents felt more supported by their friends or parents, they experienced increases in their happiness and social connectedness. Additionally, parent support emerged as a protective factor for youth lacking friend support, although patterns differed at the intra- versus inter-individual level. The findings underscore the dynamic nature of social support in adolescents' daily lives and highlight the interactive roles of friends and parents in promoting youth well-being.

Within-Subject Effects of Stress on Weight-Related Parenting Practices in Mothers: An Ecological Momentary Assessment Study.

BACKGROUND: Stress may compromise parenting practices related to children's dietary intake, physical activity, and sedentary behavior. PURPOSE: The current study used Ecological Momentary Assessment (EMA) to examine microtemporal sequences underlying maternal stress and subsequent weight-related parenting practices. METHODS: Mothers (n = 199) of children aged 8-12 years participated in two separate 7-day waves of EMA with up to eight randomly prompted surveys per day during children's nonschool time. EMA items assessed stress and weight-related parenting practices. RESULTS: When mothers reported experiencing greater stress than usual, they subsequently engaged in less physical activity parenting (e.g., encouraging physical activity; p < .05) and more sedentary screen behavior parenting (e.g., limiting TV/video games; p < .05) over the next 2 hr. CONCLUSIONS: Addressing within-day variations in maternal stress may be an important component of parent-focused child obesity prevention interventions.