Attachment avoidance predicts inflammatory responses to marital conflict

Abstract

Marital stress has been associated with immune dysregulation, including increased production of interleukin-6 (IL-6). Attachment style, one's expectations about the availability and responsiveness of others in intimate relationships, appears to influence physiological stress reactivity and thus could influence inflammatory responses to marital conflict. Thirty-five couples were invited for two 24-hour admissions to a hospital research unit. The first visit included a structured social support interaction, while the second visit comprised the discussion of a marital disagreement. A mixed effect within-subject repeated measure model indicated that attachment avoidance significantly influenced IL-6 production during the conflict visit but not during the social support visit. Individuals with higher attachment avoidance had on average an 11% increase in total IL-6 production during the conflict visit as compared to the social support visit, while individuals with lower attachment avoidance had, on average, a 6% decrease in IL-6 production during the conflict visit as compared to the social support visit. Furthermore, greater attachment avoidance was associated with a higher frequency of negative behaviors and a lower frequency of positive behaviors during the marital interaction, providing a mechanism by which attachment avoidance may influence inflammatory responses to marital conflict. In sum, these results suggest that attachment avoidance modulates marital behavior and stress-induced immune dysregulation.

Attachment and health-related physiological stress processes

“…In one study, avoidantly attached husbands and wives showed heightened inflammatory (IL-6) responses to a marital conflict discussion [50]. In another study, more avoidantly attached women recovered more slowly from induced skin wounds over the course of discussions with their dating partner.…”

The Effectiveness of Communication Skills Training on Marital Conflicts and its Different Aspects in Women

“…Most people experience conflicts in their communications as infinitely intensive (Halford, 2001;HoltLunstad, & Birmingham, 2008). Conflicts are also positively correlated with inappropriate psychological well-being conditions (Galinsky and Waite, 2014;Hawkins, & Booth, 2005), insecure attachment style (Gouin, 2009), several psychiatric disorders such as internalizing disorders (Brock, & Lawrence, 2011), depression (Wang , Wang , & Miller 2014), anxiety disorders (Doss, Simpson, & Christensen, 2004), sexual dysfunction disorders (Metz, & Epstein, 2002), and physical health problems (Galinsky and Waite, 2014) such as hypertension (Holt-Lunstad, & Birmingham, 2008), chronic pain (Cano et al, 2004) and ischemic heart diseases (Galinsky and Waite, 2014). The more unsatisfied the spouses are with their marital status, the higher is the probability of divorce (Gottman, 1997).…”

Understanding the links between social ties and health

“…For instance, secure individuals provide responsive support and are better at managing negativity in their close relationships (Kane et al, 2007). Although there is a literature linking attachment styles to health outcomes (e.g., Gouin et al, 2009), work would also be needed that directly models support and conflict as mediators of any such links (Pietromonaco et al, 2012). Relationship goals have also been linked to support and conflict, although none of this work to date appears to have been applied to the health domain (Canevello & Crocker, 2011;Gable, 2006).…”