The coregulation of daily affect in marital relationships

This study examined whether changes in individuals' affective states are associated with their partners' affect when spouses come together in daily life after having spent time apart while pursuing individual activities, as well as whether such associations are moderated by individual differences in interpersonal insecurity and perspective taking. For 7 consecutive days, spouses from 166 married couples reported their affect 6 times per day on 2 dimensions, hard affect (angry-calm) and soft affect (sad/depressed-upbeat/content). Within-couple analyses indicated that spouses' changes in hard affect covaried, particularly when they scored high on interpersonal insecurity. Moreover, husbands' changes in soft affect covaried with their wives' soft affect when the husbands scored high on perspective taking. The results emphasize the interconnectedness of spouses' feelings when they reunite, and they identify key individual difference variables that strengthen interpersonal transmission of emotion in close relationships.