abstract: Stress in romantic relationships is an all-too-common phenomenon that has detrimental effects on relationship well-being. Specifically, stress can increase partners’ negative interactions, ultimately decreasing effective communication and overall relationship functioning. Positive dyadic coping (DC) occurs when one partner assists the other in coping with stress (e.g. empathizing or helping the partner problem-solve solutions to their stress), and has been proposed as a method of buffering the deleterious effect of stress on interaction quality. One possible mechanism between the positive associations between DC and interaction quality could be how partners verbally express their support (e.g., more we-talk) during discussions about external stress. Using real-time interaction data from 40 heterosexual couples, this project examined whether observed positive and negative DC was associated with greater (or lesser) levels of perceived interaction quality. Further, language use (i.e., pronouns, emotion words, cognition words) was assessed as mediators in the associations between DC and interaction quality. Overall, results suggested that language did not mediate the effect of DC on interaction quality; however, there were several interesting links between DC, language, and interaction quality. Implications of these findings for relationship researchers and mental health clinicians working with couples are discussed. / Dissertation/Thesis / Masters Thesis Counseling 2017
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:asu.edu/item:45932 |
| Date | January 2017 |
| Contributors | Lau, Kin (Kevin) (Author), Randall, Ashley K (Advisor), Duran, Nicholas (Committee member), Pereira, Jennifer (Committee member), Arizona State University (Publisher) |
| Source Sets | Arizona State University |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Masters Thesis |
| Format | 78 pages |
| Rights | http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/, All Rights Reserved |
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