Stress and Romantic Partner Support in Contexts of Acute and Chronic Stress

Abstract

Stress is an inevitable aspect of life that, and if not well managed, can be detrimental to an individual's wellbeing (Yaribeygi et al., 2017) as well as their romantic relationship's wellbeing (Shrout, 2021). Despite the possible negative impact of stress on a romantic relationship, romantic partners consist of one of the most important sources of support from an individual's social circle in times of stress (Taylor, 2012). Various studies have shown that providing or receiving effective support from a partner can help to reduce the stress that one may experience in response to a stressful context and is also associated with relationship and individual benefits (Berli et al., 2021; Graham & Barnow, 2013; Selcuk & Ong, 2013; Overall et al., 2010). The means through which support is sought or provided, however, may tend to vary according to the context as well as according to individual tendencies, such as romantic attachment and caregiving tendencies (Simpson & Rholes, 2017). The present thesis comprises two novel and independent, yet complementary, studies that contribute to the literature on stress and support in couples by exploring some of the links between stress and support provision between romantic partners in different contexts, one of acute stress and one of chronic stress. The present thesis is composed of four sections: a general introduction, two empirical studies, and a general discussion. The general introduction presents the focus of the thesis, defines the study variables, provides relevant theoretical and empirical context pertaining to the focus of the thesis, and specifies the main objectives and hypotheses of the thesis. The general discussion will present a comprehensive summary and consolidation of the results of both studies. Study materials (i.e., ethics approval notices and consent forms) are included in the appendices. This thesis was written in accordance with the APA 7th manual, and/or in accordance with the journal to which the manuscripts were submitted. The purpose of the first study was to examine the impact of experimentally induced stress (i.e., acute stress) on support seeking and support providing desires between romantic partners in a in-laboratory fictitious stressful scenario. Additionally, we aimed to explore the moderating role of each partner's combined romantic attachment and caregiving (into two variables called hyperactivation and deactivation) on the association between stress and desire to seek or provide support from the romantic partner. The first sample consisted of 109 English-speaking Canadian mixed-sex couples who had been involved in a romantic relationship with their partner for at least 12 months at the time of participation. We conducted series of two-way moderation analyses to examine our hypotheses. Results indicated that support seekers with higher stress or higher hyperactivation reported a greater desire to be with their partner during the stressful procedure, while those with higher deactivation reported a lower desire to be with their partner. Support providers with higher hyperactivation also reported a greater desire to accompany their partner. Support providers who perceived their partner as more stressed reported a lower desire to be with them when their partner reported greater deactivation and a greater desire to be with them when their partner reported lower deactivation. Such results highlight that there may be variability in support providers or seekers desires according to their attachment and caregiving. The second study investigated longitudinal associations between parenting stress measured at two time points separated by 5 years (i.e., chronic stress), and the moderating effect of coparenting support in this association in biparental families. The sample consisted of 82 mixed-sex couples who are parents. We used a moderated Actor-Partner path analysis model to test our hypotheses. Our results revealed that greater parenting stress in each parent was related to their partner's greater parenting stress at each time point, but only to their own greater parenting stress about 5 years later. The association between fathers' parenting stress at both time points was weaker in fathers who reported greater perceived coparenting support. This study highlights that coparenting support may act as a buffer to parenting stress. Taken together, these studies provide a complementary overview of couples' experiences of stress and support in contexts of acute and chronic stress. While the first study focuses on how stress levels may be associated with romantic partner's desires for support seeking or providing, the second focuses on how romantic partner's perception of support quality is associated with their stress levels. Using cutting-edge actor-partner analyses and couple data in each study, as well as a laboratory paradigm in the first study and longitudinal data in the second study consist of important analytical and methodological strengths to these studies. The results highlight some of the variability in support seeking or providing tendencies in response to stress as well as in longitudinal experiences of stress. These results also add support to some of the theories that inform clinical conceptualizations of couple difficulties and intervention avenues for couples experiencing general relationship difficulties or those experiencing difficulties relating to coparenting specifically.