It is well established that stressful life events (e.g., family bereavements or moving to a new country) are damaging to psychological health and well‐being. Indeed, social relationships are often noted as an important factor that can influence well‐being and buffer the negative effects of stress. However, the quality and source of these relationships, particularly for adolescents, are often overlooked. Using the Growing Up in Ireland Survey, a population‐based study of 13‐year‐old Irish adolescents (N = 7,525; 51.1% female), the current study examines the quality of both parent and peer relationships as potential mechanisms explaining the association between stressful life events and psychological well‐being indices in adolescents. As expected, results showed that stressful life events negatively impacted the psychological well‐being of adolescents. Parallel mediation analyses indicated that both parent and peer relationship quality mediated this association. Further exploratory analyses found that for girls, greater numbers of stressful life events were associated with poorer quality relationships with both their parents and peers, and in turn, these were linked to lower levels of psychological well‐being. For boys, this effect was only evident for parental relationship quality, but not peers. The implication of these findings for adolescent's psychological well‐being, particularly for girls, is discussed.

The present study investigated the possible interaction between life events stress and personality in predicting cardiovascular stress responses. Participants (N = 184) completed psychometric measures of life event stress and personality styles and had cardiovascular responses monitored during a standardised stress testing protocol. In adjusted models, the observed blunted association between life event stress and SBP and DBP was moderated by openness; this was more evident at -1SD below the mean openness value. Further, the association between life event stress and TPR vascular resistance was found to be moderated by conscientiousness. In particular, we found conscientiousness at both the mean and 1SD above the mean buffered against the negative impact of life stress on TPR reactivity. The findings are discussed in relation to theory and future directions.

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To understand the influence of social relationships on cardiovascular responses to stress, the present study investigated perceived affectionate support as a mediating variable explaining the association between specific attachment bonds (i.e., mother, father, partner, best friend) and cardiovascular reactivity (CVR). Utilizing a standardized stress testing protocol, 138 young adults completed measures of attachment and social support, with continuous cardiovascular measurements obtained using the Finometer Pro hemodynamic monitor. Results showed that the association between anxious and avoidant attachment and reactivity were mediated by perceived affectionate support; insecure attachment was linked to lower levels of perceived social support, which in turn was associated with lower CVR. For anxious attachment, this was noted only for mothers (SBP: B = −0.94, 95% CI [−1.94, −0.20]; DBP: B = −0.57, [−1.27, −0.10]), fathers (SBP: B = −0.72, [−1.42, −0.17]; DBP: B = −0.48, [−1.01, −0.13]), and best friends (SBP: B = −0.64, [−1.23, −0.18]; DBP: B = −0.40, [−0.81, −0.12]). For avoidant attachment, it was evident only for fathers (SBP: B = −0.70, [−1.33, −0.17]; DBP: B = −0.48, [−0.92, −0.15]) and partners (SBP: B = −0.78, [−1.64, −0.09]; DBP: B = −0.53, [−1.10, −0.11]). These findings suggest that insecure attachment is associated with lower levels of reactivity, which have been linked to negative health outcomes such as poor self‐reported health, depression, and obesity. Overall, this research expands on the support and relationship science literature by incorporating under‐researched aspects of social relationships (i.e., specific attachment styles) and focusing on the mechanisms by which they are associated with physiological stress responses.