Examining Dyadic Stress Appraisal Processes Within Romantic Relationships from a Challenge and Threat Perspective.

Unlabelled: The biopsychosocial model of challenge and threat emphasizes how individuals appraise stress. Close relationship theories emphasize the interpersonal context, communication, and outcomes that arise from stress. We integrate these approaches by examining the individual variability surrounding appraisals of sufficient (more challenge, less threat) or insufficient (more threat, less challenge) resources to cope with demands and examining how these appraisals are associated with couples' behavior and feelings toward each other.

Holiday or hell? Emotion regulation and memory of depressive symptoms during lockdown.

The ongoing repercussions of the COVID-19 pandemic provide an unparalleled context to examine how distressing events are remembered. Prior theory and research suggest that (a) distress during lockdowns may fade and be remembered as less distressing, or remain salient and be remembered as more distressing, than initially experienced and (b) emotional suppression and cognitive reappraisal may predict these memory biases. We test these possibilities by assessing depressive symptoms and emotion regulation during two lockdowns: at the start of the pandemic (Lockdown 2020) and 17 months later (Lockdown 2021) in a sample of parents with young children ( = 272).

Feeling loved as a strong link in relationship interactions: Partners who feel loved may buffer destructive behavior by actors who feel unloved.

Feeling loved (loved, cared for, accepted, valued, understood) is inherently dyadic, yet most prior theoretical perspectives and investigations have focused on how actors feeling (un)loved shapes actors' outcomes. Adopting a dyadic perspective, the present research tested whether the established links between actors feeling unloved and destructive (critical, hostile) behavior depended on partners' feelings of being loved. Does feeling loved need to be mutual to reduce destructive behavior, or can partners feeling loved compensate for actors feeling unloved? In five dyadic observational studies, couples were recorded discussing conflicts, diverging preferences or relationship strengths, or interacting with their child (total = 842 couples; 1,965 interactions).

Enduring COVID-19 lockdowns: Risk versus resilience in parents' health and family functioning across the pandemic.

Have the demands of the COVID-19 pandemic risked declines in parents' health and family functioning, or have most parents been resilient and shown no changes in health and family functioning? Assessing average risk versus resilience requires examining how families have fared across the pandemic, beyond the initial months examined in prior investigations. The current research examines changes in parents' health and functioning over the first 1.5 years of the pandemic.

Actor and partner power are distinct and have differential effects on social behavior.

Interpersonal power involves how much actors can influence partners (actor power) and how much partners can influence actors (partner power). Yet, most theories and investigations of power conflate the effects of actor and partner power, creating a fundamental ambiguity in the literature regarding how power shapes social behavior. We demonstrate that actor and partner power are distinct and have differential effects on social behavior.

Emotion regulation and psychological and physical health during a nationwide COVID-19 lockdown.

The current research tests the links between emotion regulation and psychological and physical health during the COVID-19 pandemic. In Study 1, parents ( = 365) who had reported on their psychological and physical health prior to the pandemic completed the same health assessments along with their use of emotion regulation strategies when confined in the home with their school-aged children during a nationwide lockdown. In Study 2, individuals ( = 1,607) from a nationally representative panel study completed similar measures of psychological and physical health and use of emotion regulation strategies one-year prior to the lockdown and then again during the lockdown.

Parents' distress and poor parenting during a COVID-19 lockdown: The buffering effects of partner support and cooperative coparenting.

The COVID-19 pandemic is placing demands on parents that may amplify the risk of parents' distress and poor parenting. Leveraging a prepandemic study in New Zealand, the current research tested whether parents' psychological distress during a mandated lockdown predicts relative residual changes in poorer parenting and whether partner support and cooperative coparenting buffer this potentially detrimental effect. Participants included 362 parents; 310 were from the same family (155 dyads).

Biased memories contribute to the links between stress and depressive symptoms.

Perceived stress undermines emotional wellbeing, and poorer emotional wellbeing may intensify perceived stress. The current studies examined whether biased memories contribute to the possible reciprocal links between perceived stress and depressive symptoms. Two longitudinal studies compared the stress people perceived for several weeks (Study 1, N = 308) or during a conflict interaction (Study 2, N = 261) with memories of perceived stress gathered in subsequent weeks.

A dyadic perspective of expressive suppression: Own or partner suppression weakens relationships.

In the current research, we apply a dyadic perspective of expressive suppression (ES) to test whether ES represents a weak link, such that either actors' or partners' ES is sufficient to undermine relationship satisfaction. Our primary aim was to test this weak-link pattern by modeling Actor × Partner ES interactions on relationship satisfaction. To maximize power, we conducted integrative data analyses across four existing dyadic samples (N = 427 couples) that included self-reports of habitual ES and relationship satisfaction.

Sexist attitudes predict family-based aggression during a COVID-19 lockdown.

The current research examined whether men's hostile sexism was a risk factor for family-based aggression during a nationwide COVID-19 lockdown in which families were confined to the home for 5 weeks. Parents who had reported on their sexist attitudes and aggressive behavior toward intimate partners and children prior to the COVID-19 pandemic completed assessments of aggressive behavior toward their partners and children during the lockdown (N = 362 parents of which 310 were drawn from the same family). Accounting for pre-lockdown levels of aggression, men who more strongly endorsed hostile sexism reported greater aggressive behavior toward their intimate partners and their children during the lockdown.

Does expressing emotions enhance perceptual accuracy of negative emotions during relationship interactions?

Partners' negative emotions communicate social information necessary for individuals to respond appropriately to important relational events. Yet, there is inconsistent evidence regarding whether partners' emotional expression enhances accurate perceptions of partners' emotions. The current studies make methodological and theoretical extensions to the extant literature by directly assessing whether partners' emotional expression during relationship interactions predicts 2 types of accuracy relevant to the theorized interpersonal functions of negative emotions: tracking accuracy and directional bias.

Expressive suppression tendencies, projection bias in memory of negative emotions, and well-being.

The current research extends prior research linking negative emotions and emotion regulation tendencies to memory by investigating whether (a) naturally occurring negative emotions during routine weekly life are associated with more negatively biased memories of prior emotional experiences-a bias called projection; (b) tendencies to regulate emotions via expressive suppression are associated with greater projection bias in memory of negative emotions; and (c) greater projection bias in memory is associated with poorer future well-being. Participants (N = 308) completed a questionnaire assessing their general tendencies to engage in expressive suppression. Then, every week for 7 weeks, participants reported on (a) the negative emotions they experienced across the current week (e.