Relationship as resource or burden? Associations of attachment style, relationship quality and dyadic coping with acute psychosocial stress in the presence of the romantic partner

Abstract

Stress is a wide-spread phenomenon and associated with various detrimental health effects. A significant resource for stress buffering is social support. How social support is perceived, however, depends on a multitude of individual and interindividual factors. This study aimed to explore the stress-reducing properties of relationship-inherent variables. We investigated the association of attachment style, relationship quality and dyadic coping, with subjective and physiological stress responses to a psychosocial laboratory stressor in romantic partners. Seventy-nine couples participated, with one partner ("target") undergoing the Trier Social Stress Test and the other ("observer") observing the situation. Besides examining the role of targets relationship variables, we also assessed the link between observers relationship variables and targets stress reactivity. We found that both targets and observers insecure-avoidant attachment scores were associated with targets stress reactivity. In detail, while targets insecure-avoidant attachment scores were negatively associated with targets subjective stress experience, observers insecure-avoidant attachment scores were positively associated with targets heart rate reactivity. Further, higher insecure-avoidant attachment scores linked to lower psycho-endocrine covariance, i.e., a lower accordance between self-reported and cortisol stress responding. On the one hand, these data may suggest that under stress, insecure-avoidantly attached individuals suppress their experience of stress to preserve a sense of independence as part of their deactivating attachment strategy. The presence of an insecure-avoidantly attached partner during a stressful experience, on the other hand, seems to be a stressor rather than a source of support. Long-term, an insecure-avoidantly attached partner may negatively impact an individuals stress-related health and wellbeing. Highlights- In a situation in which one romantic partner experienced stress ("target") while being ob- served by their partner ("observer"), insecure-avoidant attachment of both predicted the tar- gets stress response - Targets insecure-avoidant attachment was associated with lower subjective stress in the tar- gets - Observers insecure-avoidant attachment was related to higher heart rate reactivity in the targets - Insecure-avoidant attachment was associated with lower psycho-endocrine covariance