ArticleEmotion (Washington, D.C.)2016
Interpersonal emotional behaviors and physical health: A 20-year longitudinal study of long-term married couples.
Article in Emotion (Washington, D.C.), 2016. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 22 papers.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
22 citing papers in PubMed, 76 citations in OpenAlex.
- The role of specific affects in the psychopathology of dementia family caregivers.Emotion (Washington, D.C.) · 2026Article
- Association of potential morally injurious events, moral injury and somatic symptoms of health in UK military veterans: a cross-sectional study.BMC psychology · 2025Article
- Diminished preparatory physiological responses in people with dementia: associations with caregiver health and relationship quality.The journals of gerontology. Series B, Psychological sciences and social sciences · 2025Article
- Unraveling the Experience of Affection Across Marital and Friendship Interactions.Affective science · 2025Article
- Toward a new theory of couple functioning: a short overview of "Frontiers in psychology · 2025Article
- Interpersonal linkage in positive and negative emotional behaviors, emotional well-being, and physical functioning in dementia caregivers.Clinical psychological science : a journal of the Association for Psychological Science · 2024Article
- Emotion Regulation in Couples Across Adulthood.Annual review of developmental psychology · 2023Article
- Attachment across the lifespan: Examining the intersection of pair bonding neurobiology and healthy aging.Neuroscience and biobehavioral reviews · 2023Review
- Facial expressions in adolescent-parent interactions and mental health: A proof-of-concept study.Emotion (Washington, D.C.) · 2023Article
- Positivity resonance in long-term married couples: Multimodal characteristics and consequences for health and longevity.Journal of personality and social psychology · 2022Article
- Shared emotions in shared lives: Moments of co-experienced affect, more than individually experienced affect, linked to relationship quality.Emotion (Washington, D.C.) · 2022Article
- Rethinking Social Relationships in Adulthood: The Differential Investment of Resources Model.Personality and social psychology review : an official journal of the Society for Personality and Social Psychology, Inc · 2022Article
- High Parental Education Protects Against Changes in Adolescent Stress and Mood Early in the COVID-19 Pandemic.The Journal of adolescent health : official publication of the Society for Adolescent Medicine · 2021Article
- Behavioral indices of positivity resonance associated with long-term marital satisfaction.Emotion (Washington, D.C.) · 2020Article
- Age-related changes in emotional behavior: Evidence from a 13-year longitudinal study of long-term married couples.Emotion (Washington, D.C.) · 2020Article
- Stress and Illness: A Role for Specific Emotions.Psychosomatic medicine · 2019Article
- Marriage and Gut (Microbiome) Feelings: Tracing Novel Dyadic Pathways to Accelerated Aging.Psychosomatic medicine · 2019Article
- High social strain and physical health: Examining the roles of anxious arousal, body mass index, and inflammation.Psychoneuroendocrinology · 2019Article
- Self-Disclosure and Perceived Responsiveness Among Youth With Asthma: Links to Affect and Anti-Inflammatory Gene Expression.Personality & social psychology bulletin · 2019Article
- Affective processes as mediators of links between close relationships and physical health.Social and personality psychology compass · 2018Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
5 authors at 4 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
Objectively coded interpersonal emotional behaviors that emerged during a 15-min marital conflict interaction predicted the development of physical symptoms in a 20-year longitudinal study of long-term marriages. Dyadic latent growth curve modeling showed that anger behavior predicted increases in cardiovascular symptoms and stonewalling behavior predicted increases in musculoskeletal symptoms. Both associations were found for husbands (although cross-lagged path models also showed some support for wives) and were controlled for sociodemographic characteristics (age, education) and behaviors (i.e., exercise, smoking, alcohol consumption, caffeine consumption) known to influence health. Both associations did not exist at the start of the study, but only emerged over the ensuing 20 years. There was some support for the specificity of these relationships (i.e., stonewalling behavior did not predict cardiovascular symptoms; anger behavior did not predict musculoskeletal symptoms; neither symptom was predicted by fear nor sadness behavior), with the anger-cardiovascular relationship emerging as most robust. Using cross-lagged path models to probe directionality of these associations, emotional behaviors predicted physical health symptoms over time (with some reverse associations found as well). These findings illuminate longstanding theoretical and applied issues concerning the association between interpersonal emotional behaviors and physical health and suggest opportunities for preventive interventions focused on specific emotions to help address major public health problems. (PsycINFO Database Record
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.