Abstract
Respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA) is a biomarker of cardiac vagal tone that has been linked to social functioning. Recent studies suggest that RSA moderates the impact of interpersonal processes on psychosocial adjustment. The goal of this study was to assess whether RSA would moderate the association between dyadic coping (DC) and depressive symptoms. Eighty cohabiting couples raising preschool children completed the Dyadic Coping Inventory, the Center for Epidemiological Study-Depression scale and had their RSA assessed during a laboratory session. Couples completed follow-up assessments of depressive symptoms 6 and 12 months later. Data were analyzed using an Actor-Partner Interdependence Model. Results indicated that RSA moderated the actor effect of negative DC on depression in men, such that men with lower RSA had a stronger association between their own ratings of negative DC within the couple relationship and their own depressive symptoms, compared to their counterparts with higher RSA. RSA also moderated the partner effect of delegated DC on depressive symptoms. Among men with higher RSA, there was a significant negative association between their partner’s ratings of delegated DC within the couple relationship and the men’s depressive symptoms, whereas partner-rated delegated DC was unrelated to depressive symptoms among men with lower RSA. These results suggest that men with higher RSA may possess social skills and abilities that attenuate the association between stressful marital interactions and negative mood.
Highlights
Stress and coping research has traditionally focused on how individuals react to and are impacted by stress from an individual perspective
The primary goal of this study was to assess whether Respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA) would moderate the association between dyadic coping (DC) and depressive symptoms
Depressive symptoms were significantly positively correlated between cohabiting partners with a small effect size, r = 0.26, p = 0.03
Summary
Stress and coping research has traditionally focused on how individuals react to and are impacted by stress from an individual perspective. The systemic-transactional model of dyadic coping (DC) highlights that for couples, coping occurs in a shared social context characterized by the interdependence of partners’ responses to stress (Bodenmann, 1995). In this context, coping is often a dyadic rather than individual endeavor, whereby members of a couple work together to cope with stress. According to this model of DC, when one or both members of a dyad experience stress, both partners engage in a series of reciprocal interactions following an initial communication of stress.
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