Effects of Stress on the Social Support Provided by Men and Women in Intimate Relationships

Abstract

Although evolutionary and social-structural models predict that women will be more supportive than men in relationships, behavioral studies fail to confirm this difference. We predicted instead that gender differences in support will be moderated by stress, and that men will provide lower-quality support primarily when their stress is high. We predicted further that the detrimental effects of stress on men's support will be more evident when men are responding to women's emotionally toned expressions of stress than when men are responding to women's affectively neutral expressions of stress. Stressed and unstressed men and women were observed providing support to a stressed relationship partner. While unstressed, men and women generally provided similar support to the stressed partner. While stressed, men provided lower-quality support than did comparably stressed women, but only in response to emotionally toned expressions of stress. Thus, gender differences in support may arise because women are better able than men to regulate other people's emotional distress while managing stresses of their own.

A Daily Diary Study of Joint Quit Attempts by Dual-Smoker Couples: The Role of Received and Provided Social Support

“…23,24 Women seem to be better able to adapt support provision to the need of their partners, whereas men react with more negativity to their wives' stress when they are stressed themselves. 25,26 Thus, this study is the first to investigate women's and men's received and provided social support on their own and their partners' daily smoking.…”

“…23,24 An explanation for A c c e p t e d M a n u s c r i p t these gender differences is that women seem to be better able to adapt their support provision to the needs of their partner, compared to men who seem to react with more negativity to their female partner's stress when they are stressed themselves. 25,26 Smoking cessation is likely a highly stressful event for the participating dual-smoker couples, given their initially high levels of smoking of on average 16 cigarettes per day. Future intervention studies focusing on the partner as the support provider should thus consider this gender difference.…”

Economic strain and support in couple: The mediating role of positive emotions

“…High levels of chronic stress (such as financial strain) are in general associated with more challenges for couples (e.g., more working hours and lack of money for child care) and negatively affect couples' ability to cope effectively with these additional stressors. Moreover, Bodenmann et al () found that stress negatively influenced particularly social support provided by men in couples, and this was explained by the fact that stressful environments deplete the emotional resources of partners to remain connected and not by the insufficient skills of men to be supportive. Similarly, McNulty () emphasizes the role of contextual factors in interpersonal relationships and suggests that external and stressful circumstances limit partners' self‐regulatory resources.…”

Analyzing Dyadic Sequence Data—Research Questions and Implied Statistical Models

“…We will exemplify the typical data structure and illustrate the statistical models throughout this contribution using a sample study from relationship research (Bodenmann et al, 2015). In this sample 198 heterosexual couples living in Switzerland participated.…”