Time-varying associations between everyday affect and cortisol in older couples

Area of Science:

• Psychology
• Social Neuroscience
• Gerontology

Background:

• Emotional experiences fluctuate and can be shared between romantic partners.
• Emotion dynamics may influence physiological stress responses, such as cortisol secretion.
• Understanding these dynamics is crucial for relationship health and well-being in older adults.

Purpose of the Study:

• To examine the time-varying relationship between an individual's own and their partner's sadness and contentment with salivary cortisol.
• To investigate whether perceptions of shared feelings moderate these associations between emotions and cortisol.

Main Methods:

• 84 community-dwelling older adult couples participated.
• Simultaneous daily assessments of momentary cortisol, sadness, contentment, and perceived shared feelings were collected four times daily for seven days.
• Data included up to 28 assessments per couple.

Main Results:

• Momentary cortisol levels were elevated during periods of higher personal sadness and lower contentment.
• Cortisol also increased when partners reported higher sadness and lower contentment, but this effect was contingent on perceptions of shared feelings.
• Perceptions of less shared feelings were associated with higher cortisol when individuals experienced sadness.

Conclusions:

• Perceptions of shared spousal feelings act as a pathway linking emotional experiences to physiological stress responses.
• Both individual and partner's emotions, mediated by perceived sharing, influence cortisol levels in older couples.
• This highlights the interconnectedness of emotional well-being and physiological stress within romantic relationships.