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 ( = 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.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThis study investigates bidirectional associations between adolescents' daily experiences of victimization and aggression perpetration within friendships. We investigated (a) across-day associations between victimization and aggression perpetration; (b) morning cortisol activity as a moderator of cross-day victimization and aggression links; and (c) potential sex differences in these patterns. For 4 consecutive days, 99 adolescents (M = 18.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThis longitudinal study investigated how past versus current life stresses relate to adolescents' cortisol awakening response (CAR), an index of hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal activity. Ninety-nine adolescents reported previous year life stress at ages 12 and 18. At the second assessment, participants also provided self-reports of parent and peer attachment and 3 days of cortisol samples.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPurpose: To assess short-term effects of daily worries on hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis activity and later implications for adolescents' health symptoms. We hypothesized that heightened worry would be associated with stronger next-morning cortisol awakening response (CAR) to prepare the body for the demands of the upcoming day. Guided by biological adaptation to stress theories, we also hypothesized that dysregulated CAR would heighten associations between worries and later health symptoms, while also testing direct associations between worries and dysregulated CAR and health.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThis study investigated links between interparental conflict appraisals (specifically threat and self-blame), sibling relationship quality (positive and negative dimensions), and anxiety in sibling pairs comprised of an adolescent and a younger sibling close in age. Sibling relationship quality was measured through behavioral observation. Links between self-blame and anxiety were moderated by sibling relationship quality.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjective: Within-family concordance in physiology may have implications for family system functioning and for individual health outcomes. Here, we examine patterns of association in cortisol within family triads.
Methods: A total of 103 adolescents and their parents sampled saliva at multiple timepoints before and after a conflict discussion task.
Clin Child Fam Psychol Rev
March 2014
Since the advent of social networking site (SNS) technologies, adolescents' use of these technologies has expanded and is now a primary way of communicating with and acquiring information about others in their social network. Overall, adolescents and young adults' stated motivations for using SNSs are quite similar to more traditional forms of communication-to stay in touch with friends, make plans, get to know people better, and present oneself to others. We begin with a summary of theories that describe the role of SNSs in adolescents' interpersonal relationships, as well as common methodologies used in this field of research thus far.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIs an attenuated physiological response to family conflict, seen in some youth exposed to early adversity, protective or problematic? A longitudinal study including 54 youth (average age 15.2 years) found that those with higher cumulative family aggression exposure showed lower cortisol output during a laboratory-based conflict discussion with their parents, and were less likely to show the normative pattern of increased cortisol reactivity to a discussion they rated as more conflictual. Family aggression interacted with cortisol reactivity in predicting youth adjustment: Adolescents from more aggressive homes who were also more reactive to the discussion reported more posttraumatic stress symptoms and more antisocial behavior.
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