The Health Protective Consequences of Affectionate Touch During Couple Conflict Throughout Adulthood

Carnegie-Mellon University, Pittsburgh PA

Investigators

Abstract

7. Project Summary/Abstract The goal of the proposed project is to implement a training plan that facilitates the development of research and professional skills in social/health psychology and meets the strategic planning goals of the National Institute on Aging. The proposed research will investigate the role of a specific behavior within close relation- ships to promote relational and physical/mental health throughout the adult lifespan. Specifically, the proposed research aims to test the impact of affectionate touch to protect and improve relationship quality (Aim 1) and to buffer stress (Aim 2) during relational conflict. Relational health and daily stress both contribute to individual health throughout the lifespan; high quality relationships protect health, and difficult relationships and stress contribute to costly health problems. Affectionate touch may promote relational health and buffer stress during conflict by increasing individuals? feeling of closeness to their partners (Aim 3). Individuals who feel close may be motivated to behave in relationship-protective ways during conflict (e.g., compromising) and to perceive their partner positively. Additionally, feeling close to one?s partner may buffer the stress of a conflict discussion. Previous research has shown that touch reduces stress when individuals experience individual stressors; the proposed research will expand on this research by testing 1) whether touch also buffers relationship stress and protects relational health, and 2) whether psychological closeness is a mechanism to explain these effects. To achieve the aims of the proposed research, age-diverse participant couples (both younger and older adults, to assess the importance of touch across the adult lifespan) will be recruited for an experimental study. Couples will be informed that the study?s goal is to investigate engaging in everyday tasks in novel ways; to do so, all participants will be asked to use only one hand during study tasks. Participants will either be asked to hold hands (touch condition) or to hold neutral objects (control condition) during 1) a neutral activity, and 2) a conflict discussion. Participants will complete questionnaires to assess their closeness to their partner after the neutral activity, and they will complete questionnaires to assess relationship perceptions after the conflict discussion. To further assess whether touch promotes relational health (Aim 1), coders will view a videotape of the conflict discussion and code positive and negative behaviors during the conflict. These behaviors and post- discussion relational perceptions will be compared between groups. To assess whether touch buffers stress (Aim 2), self-reported, observed (coded), and physiological (blood pressure reactivity) stress will also be compared between groups. Finally, a mediation model will test psychological closeness as a mechanism of these effects (Aim 3). This research has implications for theory development on the role of social relationships for individual health across the adult lifespan. Additionally, results of this research will inform couple- interventions that prevent normative declines in relationship quality and reduce stress to protect health.