The current study examined whether directly altering affective associations involving a relationship partner through evaluative conditioning can lead to changes in relationship satisfaction. Married couples ( N = 144) were asked to view a brief stream of images once every 3 days for 6 weeks. Embedded in this stream were pictures of the partner, which, according to random assignment of couples to experimental group, were paired with either positive or neutral stimuli. Couples also completed measures of automatic partner attitudes and explicit marital satisfaction at baseline and once every 2 weeks for 8 weeks. Spouses who viewed their partners paired with positive stimuli demonstrated more-positive automatic partner attitudes than did control spouses, and these attitudes predicted increased self-reported marital satisfaction over time. These results provide novel evidence for a mechanism of change in relationship satisfaction, represent a step toward documenting how strong attitudes can evolve through passive exposure to information, and suggest novel avenues for relationship interventions.

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According to life history theory, sociosexual orientations in adulthood should be affected by an individual’s early childhood environment. Highly predictable (stable) environments should increase the potential fitness benefits of long-term (slow) mating strategies as well as the potential costs of short-term (fast) mating strategies. Experiencing a more predictable childhood environment, therefore, should lead individuals to enact a slower life history strategy characterized by more restricted sociosexual behaviors. We tested this hypothesis in the Minnesota Longitudinal Study of Risk and Adaptation (MLSRA), an ongoing longitudinal study that has followed individuals from before they were born into adulthood. Indicators of sociosexuality in early adulthood were assessed by trained coders based on interviews conducted with participants about their current relationship, their relationship history, and their future relationship aspirations when they were 23 years old. The findings revealed that having experienced more predictable environments during the first 4 years of life (indexed by less frequent changes in parents’ employment status, cohabitation status, and residence) prospectively predicted more restricted sociosexuality at age 23, over and above current levels of predictability (that also uniquely predicted restricted sociosexuality at age 23). This early life predictability effect was partially mediated by greater early maternal support and being securely attached at age 19. Viewed together, these findings suggest that greater predictability early in life may be partially conveyed to children through more supportive parenting, which results in secure attachment in adolescence, which in turn predicts more restricted sociosexuality in early adulthood.

Infant attachment is theorized to lay the foundation of emotion regulation across the life span. However, testing this proposition requires prospective designs examining whether attachment assessed in infancy predicts emotion regulation strategies observed in adult relationships. Using unique data from the Minnesota Longitudinal Study of Risk and Adaptation, we examined whether infant attachment assessed at 12 and 18 months in the Strange Situation were associated with attachment-relevant emotion regulation strategies coded from video-recorded conflict discussions with romantic partners at ages 20, 23, 26, and/or 35. The current research first integrated the developmental and emotion regulation literatures to identify three specific attachment-relevant emotion regulation strategies. Balanced-regulation involves being open, approach-orientated, and engaging in collaborative problem-solving. Hypo-regulation involves suppressing emotions, disengaging from close others, and engaging in superficial problemsolving. Hyper-regulation involves exaggerating emotional expressions, ruminating, and being selffocused in processing issues. Compared to stable secure infants (secure at 12 and 18 months), stable insecure infants (insecure at 12 and 18 months) displayed worse balanced-regulation and greater hypo-regulation strategies, and unstable insecure infants (insecure at 12 or 18 months) displayed greater hyper-regulation strategies, in relationship-threatening situations 20 -35 years later. Conceptually replicating these results, greater friendship insecurity at age 16 predicted worse balanced-regulation and greater hypo-and hyper-regulation strategies during relationship-threatening situations in adulthood. These findings highlight that infant attachment insecurity is associated with distinct emotion regulation strategies in adulthood 20 -35 years later.

Relationship partners affect one another’s health outcomes through their health behaviors, yet how this occurs is not well understood. To fill this gap, we present the Dyadic Health Influence Model (DHIM). The DHIM identifies three routes through which a person (the agent) can impact the health beliefs and behavior of their partner (the target). An agent may (a) model health behaviors and shape the shared environment, (b) enact behaviors that promote their relationship, and/or (c) employ strategies to intentionally influence the target’s health behavior. A central premise of the DHIM is that agents act based on their beliefs about their partner’s health and their relationship. In turn, their actions have consequences not only for targets’ health behavior but also for their relationship. We review theoretical and empirical research that provides initial support for the routes and offer testable predictions at the intersection of health behavior change research and relationship science.