ArticlePsychosomatic medicine
"We've Got This": Middle-Aged and Older Couples' Satisfying Relationships and We-Talk Promote Better Physiological, Relational, and Emotional Responses to Conflict.
Article in Psychosomatic medicine. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 2 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.
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Who cites it
2 citing papers in PubMed, 5 citations in OpenAlex.
- Couples in breast cancer survivorship: Daily associations in relationship satisfaction, stress, and health.Comprehensive psychoneuroendocrinology · 2024Article
- Couples-based health behavior change interventions: A relationship science perspective on the unique opportunities and challenges to improve dyadic health.Comprehensive psychoneuroendocrinology · 2024Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
5 authors at 3 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
objectiveConflict poses multiple relational and health risks. Dyadic stress theories suggest satisfaction and communication alter cardiovascular and autonomic function, key pathways from troubled relationships to poor health. However, "we-talk," a positive communication pattern, can strengthen relationships and promote health. We examined how each spouse's satisfaction and we-talk were related to conflict's physiological, relational, and emotional toll.
methodsMarried couples ( n = 107 couples, 214 individuals, ages 40-87 years) who were mostly White, highly educated, and higher-income Americans in different-gender relationships engaged in 20-minute conflict discussions while wearing monitors to assess heart rate variability (HRV). Spouses rated their closeness immediately after conflict and their conflict rumination 2 hours later. Conflict transcriptions measured we-talk, or the proportion of first-person plural pronouns (we, us, our).
resultsSatisfied spouses or those in mutually satisfying relationships had higher HRV during conflict ( b = 0.0001, p = .049), felt closer immediately after conflict ( b = 0.07, p < .001), and ruminated less about the conflict 2 hours later ( b = -0.26, p = .026). Spouses' HRV was highest ( b = 0.0002, p = .002) and rumination was lowest ( b = -0.49, p = .019) when they or their partners were satisfied and used we-talk more often. Women's HRV ( b = 0.0001, p = .035) and rumination ( b = -0.01, p = .02) benefited when both spouses were satisfied, as did closeness when women were satisfied ( b = 0.10, p < .001). Men's closeness benefited when they ( b = 0.04, p = .003) or their wives ( b = 0.04, p = .002) were satisfied.
conclusionsThe combination of mutually satisfying relationships and we-talk was associated with better relational and health outcomes after conflict. These findings are important for middle-aged and older couples whose relationships are central to their health.
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Registered trials
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