With or without you: Preliminary evidence that attachment avoidance predicts nondeployed spouses’ reactions to relationship challenges during deployment.

Abstract

Although much is written about the impact of deployment on nondeployed spouses (NDSs) and couple relationships, few empirical studies address this directly. Using attachment theory as a guiding framework, this study followed 32 NDSs across a military deployment. We examined the prospective association between NDSs' attachment avoidance and their response to relational challenges (assessed using both correlational and experimental designs) during a deployment. Two weeks before deployment, NDSs provided self-reports of their attachment avoidance and relationship satisfaction. During the deployment, they provided stream-of-consciousness speech samples regarding (a) the deployment and (b) their anticipated reunion with their spouse: after each speech sample they reported on their subjective anxiety. Based on random assignment, NDSs then completed either an experimenter-led "personal" or "relational" memory savoring task, reporting on their emotional state before and after the task. Two JESSICA L. BORELLI received her PhD in clinical psychology from Yale University and completed her predoctoral clinical internship at University of California, Los Angeles's Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior. She is currently an assistant professor of psychology at Pomona College in Claremont, California. Her research program focuses on attachment relationships, emotion, parenting, and the goal of developing attachment-based interventions to enhance well-being. DAVID A. SBARRA received his PhD in clinical psychology at the University of Virginia. He is an associate professor of Psychology at the University of Arizona, where he also serves as director of Clinical Training. The focus of his research is on close relationships and health, especially the stress that follows social separations like divorce and military deployment. JONATHAN E. SNAVELY received his MA in psychology and evaluation from Claremont Graduate University, where he is now pursuing a doctorate in applied social psychology. His primary research investigates the differential impact of relational and collective self-construal on social cognition, especially in relation to prosocial behavior, health, and the meaningmaking process. DANA L. MCMAKIN received her PhD in clinical child psychology from the University of Denver and completed her predoctoral clinical internship

Relational savoring in long-distance romantic relationships

“…In line with recent work suggesting that brief theory-driven social psychological interventions can profoundly influence relational and individual well-being in an iterative way (Finkel et al, 2013;Layous et al, 2013;Sin & Lyubomirsky, 2009), our study adapted a brief relational savoring task (Borelli et al, 2010(Borelli et al, , 2014 for administration over the internet among adult members of LDRs; as primary outcomes, we assessed emotional reactions and relationship satisfaction following a simulated relationship stressor. Consistent with the study predictions, we found that assignment to the relational savoring condition (as opposed to either of the two control conditions) resulted in greater self-reported positive and lower negative emotion.…”

“…They were instructed to select any kind of experience, no matter how minor or major, when they felt especially "cherished, protected, or accepted" by their partner (Borelli et al, 2010(Borelli et al, , 2014, which was designed to evoke feelings of attachment security. Just as in the personal savoring condition, participants reported on the details of the event, as well as their thoughts and feelings, and then My alarm goes off.…”

“…functioned as they were intended, we examined the frequency of first person plural ("we," "us," and "our") and first person singular ("I," "me," and "my") pronoun use based on the argument that greater first person plural and lower first person singular pronoun use suggests a greater relational focus (Borelli et al, 2014;Rohrbaugh, Mehl, Shoham, Reilly, & Ewy, 2008;Rohrbaugh, Shoham, Skoyen, Jensen, & Mehl, 2012). Further, we evaluated frequency of positive emotion (e.g., "love," "sweet," "joy") based on the assumption that more frequent positive emotion word use would suggest a greater degree of positive emotion experienced during the mental reflection task.…”

“…Relational savoring is defined as savoring an experience that occurs in physical and temporal conjunction with another person with whom one is emotionally close (Borelli et al, 2014). In contrast to relational savoring, personal savoring involves reflecting on a memory of an individual or personal positive experience.…”

Cherish the good times: Relational savoring in parents of infants and toddlers

“…Although existing research demonstrates that personal relationships are the most commonly reported focus of savoring (Bryant et al, ), few studies have explicitly examined the differences between savoring an individual, personal memory ( personal savoring ) and savoring the memory of an experience that was shared with another person ( relational savoring ). Relational savoring involves deeply focusing one's attention on a moment of shared positive connection with another person (Borelli, Sbarra, et al, ; Bryant, ). Based on the general savoring literature, we would expect any type of savoring (personal or relational) to improve parents' emotions.…”