Coregulation of respiratory sinus arrhythmia in adult romantic partners.

Abstract

Questions surrounding physiological interdependence in romantic relationships are gaining increased attention in the research literature. One specific form of interdependence, coregulation, can be defined as the bidirectional linkage of oscillating signals within optimal bounds. Conceptual and theoretical work suggests that physiological coregulation should be instantiated in romantic couples. Although these ideas are appealing, the central tenets of most coregulatory models await empirical evaluation. In the current study, we evaluate the covariation of respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA) in 32 romantic couples during a series of laboratory tasks using a cross-lagged panel model. During the tasks, men's and women's RSA were associated with their partners' previous RSA responses, and this pattern was stronger for those couples with higher relationship satisfaction. The findings are discussed in terms of their implications for attachment theory, as well as the association between relationships and health.

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

“…Typically, these measures were obtained through self-report questionnaires or behavioral coding. Out of 17 tests, 13 significant (e.g., Hasler & Troxel, 2010; Helm et al, 2012, 2014; Hubler, 2013; Levenson & Gottman, 1983; Liu et al, 2013; Saxbe & Repetti, 2010; Schneiderman et al, 2014) and 4 non-significant effects (Levenson & Gottman, 1985; Reed et al, 2013; Sauder, 2001; Thomsen & Gilbert, 1998) were reported. Positive associations in cortisol were linked to poorer relationship quality in daily life (Liu et al, 2013; Saxbe & Repetti, 2010) and during laboratory-based conflict (Schneiderman et al, 2014).…”

“…This phenomenon, known as physiological linkage, synchrony, or coregulation, is defined as covariation between two people in their physiological states. Although documented as early as the 1950s in client-therapist dyads (Di Mascio, Boyd, Greenblat, & Solomon, 1955), interest in physiological linkage, especially in romantic couples, has been increasing in the past few years (Helm, Sbarra, & Ferrer, 2012, 2014; Liu, Rovine, Cousino Klein, Almeida, 2013; Papp, Pendry, Simon, & Adam, 2013; Saxbe et al, 2014; Saxbe & Repetti, 2010). The advent of more sophisticated technological and quantitative techniques for capturing dynamic inter-individual physiological processes (Ferrer & Helm, 2013; McAssey, Helm, Hsieh, Sbarra, & Ferrer, 2013; Poh, Swensen, & Picard, 2010) has primed the field for continuing advances.…”

Measuring physiological influence in dyads: A guide to designing, implementing, and analyzing dyadic physiological studies.

“…First, some techniques consider the relationship between two people's physiology at the same time point (e.g., Papp, Pendry, Simon, & Adam, 2013;Saxbe & Repetti, 2010;Waters et al, 2014), which is important for examining shared experiences. Other techniques use a time-lagged design to examine whether one partner's physiology at one time point predicts the other partner's physiology at a later time point (e.g., Helm et al, 2014;Kraus & Mendes, 2014;Liu, Rovine, Klein, & Almeida, 2013), which is important for examining whether one partner's physiological state is predicted by the other partner's state.…”

Relationships and Health: The Critical Role of Affective Science

“…The authors speculated that this process was one potential manifestation of human coregulation (see Sbarra & Hazan, 2008), but, to date, there is no evidence that coregulation itself has any direct relevance for health. Part of the problem with the Helm et al (2014) finding is that HRV, as an outcome variable, is not calibrated in a meaningful way that allows for a direct understanding of the potential health relevance of the findings.…”