Stress From Daily Hassles in Couples: Its Effects on Intradyadic Stress, Relationship Satisfaction, and Physical and Psychological Well‐Being

Abstract

According to the systemic-transactional stress model (STM; G. Bodenmann, European Review of Applied Psychology, 1997; 47: 137), extradyadic stress from daily hassles can have a negative impact on the individual psychological and physical health and the couple's relationship. This study is the first one to test the STM propositions in a model that includes both partners' individual and relational outcomes simultaneously. The model also includes actor and partner effects as well as the interdependence between partners' processes. Cross-sectional, self-report data were collected from 110 community couples in Switzerland. Consistent with STM predictions, results from the path model analysis indicate that for actor effects extradyadic stress from daily hassles relates directly to lower psychological (increase in anxiety symptoms) and physical well-being and only indirectly to lower relationship satisfaction through increased intradyadic stress from relationship problems and also through more depressive symptomatology in men. The female extradyadic stress and intradyadic stress had partner effects on the male intradyadic stress and the male relationship satisfaction, respectively. Limitations as well as research and clinical implications for marriage and family therapists are discussed.

Stressful Life Events and Physical and Psychological Health: Mediating Effects of Differentiation of Self in a Spanish Sample

“…We also found that negative perception of SLEs experienced during the past year was associated with lower levels DoS, and lower DoS was linked with poorer psychological health outcomes. Research has shown that major stressful events have a negative impact on health (e.g., Falconier et al., ; Rosengren et al., ), and our results suggest that one of the pathways is through deficits in DoS (e.g., greater levels of emotional cutoff and heightened emotional reactivity).…”

Acknowledging the elephant in the room: how stressful environmental contexts shape relationship dynamics

“…During periods of relatively high external stress, couples are more likely to indicate they are struggling with such relational issues as having less time to connect with one another, a lack of intimacy within the marriage, feeling neglected by their partner, and increased differences in attitudes with the partner [21, 22]. In essence, stressful contexts impose additional challenges on the couple, by constraining the types of experiences couples accrue within the relationship, which ultimately can erode marital happiness.…”

Stress Spillover and Crossover in Couple Relationships: Integrating Religious Beliefs and Prayer

“…The links between daily extradyadic stress and both individual (e.g., psychological symptoms; Bodenmann et al, ; Falconier et al, ) and relationship (e.g., sexual problems and relationship quality or satisfaction; Bodenmann et al, , ) outcomes are often mediated by daily intradyadic stress. However, extradyadic stress was more predictive of own sexual functioning for both genders and had more influence on sexual functioning than psychological symptoms or relationship quality; further, for women, intradyadic stress was more predictive of sexual problems, whereas for men extradyadic stress was more predictive of sexual problems (Bodenmann et al, ).…”

“…Negative work-family spillover has consequences for individual well-being and has been a popular area of study (e.g., Grzywacz, 2000;Grzywacz & Marks, 2000). Daily workand family-related stress tend to co-occur (Grzywacz, Almeida, & McDonald, 2002), and attempts to examine daily extra-and intradyadic stress and relationship outcomes, (e.g., closeness, sexual satisfaction) confirm the notion of spillover of extradyadic to intradyadic stress (Bodenmann, Ledermann, & Bradbury, 2007;Falconier, Nussbeck, Bodenmann, Schneider, & Bradbury, 2015;Ledermann, Bodenmann, Rudaz, & Bradbury, 2010). Moreover, many findings suggest that the accumulation of intradyadic stress (resulting from stressors such as conflict or negative interactions) explains how extradyadic stress has an impact on relationship outcomes.…”