Adult Health in the Context of Everyday Family Life

Abstract

To learn how family environments are linked to health, researchers should study the interlacing of different aspects of the everyday lives of family members, including their physiology, emotions, behavior, activities, and experiences.

Physiological linkage in couples and its implications for individual and interpersonal functioning: A literature review.

“…Reference lists of articles meeting criteria were then examined to identify other articles, as were reference lists of relevant review articles (Butler, 2011; Repetti, Wang, & Saxbe, 2011; Sbarra & Hazan, 2008). This search produced 24 articles meeting criteria.…”

Spouses' Cortisol Associations and Moderators: Testing Physiological Synchrony and Connectedness in Everyday Life

“…Saxbe and Repetti () documented initial empirical evidence of positive covariation in spouses' momentary cortisol levels in everyday life, with Repetti et al. () extending these findings conceptually by underscoring the need to explicate the naturalistic and family contexts of this covariation. While findings based on studies of individuals encourage the continued consideration of loneliness as an influence on the stress response (Matias et al., ; Steptoe et al., ), scant work has specifically tested whether emotional versus physical connection (or lack of connection) accounts for these findings.…”

“…What is less clear is whether everyday experiences within the family (particularly social interactions) play a role in within‐dyad physiological functioning and synchrony. A recent review by Repetti, Wang, and Saxbe () suggests that marital partners' activity of the HPA axis—and coregulation thereof—should be examined while considering momentary experiences and day‐to‐day social and emotional connections between the partners. Guided by the theoretical framework that emerges from that literature, our investigation thus uses the experience sampling method (ESM) to examine within‐couple associations of cortisol levels in the naturalistic setting of the home and test whether these associations are moderated by physical and emotional connectedness between partners.…”

“…Our investigation considers several relevant processes by which interactional synchrony of cortisol production may be influenced (Repetti et al., ). First, daily spillover of stress from work and parenting hassles has been shown to influence individuals' mood and cortisol diurnal activity (e.g., Saxbe et al., ).…”

“…Known as the “negative affect reciprocity” hypothesis, laboratory findings suggest that couples with lower marital satisfaction tend to less effectively modulate each other's arousal during marital conflict (Levenson & Gottman, ). Coregulation of cortisol secretion appears also to be affected by communication behaviors (e.g., expression of emotional and instrumental support, demanding or disapproving behavior) and the broader context in which these behaviors occur (e.g., physical proximity of spouse, presence of children) (Repetti et al., ).…”