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Cited by 3Stress Responses and CortisolAttachment and Relationship DynamicsChild Abuse and Trauma

Family aggression and attachment avoidance influence neuroendocrine reactivity in young adult couples.

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Kazmierski, Kelly F. M., Beam, Christopher R., Margolin, Gayla·2020·Journal of Family Psychology
DOI 10.1037/fam0000633PMC PMC7416485
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Abstract

Family-of-origin aggression (FOA) exposure is a chronic childhood stressor that has been linked to altered stress reactivity of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis in adulthood. The effects of FOA also spill over between partners in romantic couples, such that one partner's FOA history influences the other's HPA reactivity during couple interactions. However, the direction of these effects is inconsistent, with both heightened and blunted HPA reactivity observed; this heterogeneity suggests the presence of moderators. This study measured HPA reactivity during emotionally vulnerable conversations between young adult romantic partners to assess whether romantic attachment avoidance accounts for this divergence by moderating actor and partner effects of FOA on HPA. A total of 112 opposite-sex couples (224 young adults) provided information on FOA and avoidance, completed dyadic interaction procedures, and provided saliva samples to assess HPA reactivity during interactions. Multilevel structural equation models revealed that FOA did not predict either the actor's or the partner's HPA reactivity. However, FOA and avoidance interacted to produce both actor and partner effects, such that greater FOA exposure heightened HPA reactivity when avoidance was high but blunted reactivity when avoidance was low. The results support the conjecture that proximal relationship-related characteristics, such as attachment avoidance, influence whether distal relationship-related stressors, such as FOA, amplify or attenuate physiological reactivity during emotionally vulnerable interactions. Because HPA reactivity has been linked to a variety of health outcomes, identifying relationship-related buffers of associations between FOA and HPA response may inform future interventions to protect health for FOA-exposed youth. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).

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  • Men's family-of-origin aggression and men's childhood family adversity were not significantly related to their partner's cortisol response during in-lab interactions (Arbel et al., 2016; Kazmierski et al., 2020; Winer et al., 2018).

    “Men’s family-of-origin aggression and men’s childhood family adversity were not significantly related to their partner’s cortisol response during in-lab interactions (Arbel et al., 2016; Kazmierski et al., 2020; Winer et al., 2018)”

    From Partner Effects of Childhood Maltreatment: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis (2024) · cites this paper as Kazmierski et al., 2020

    Results, Hypothesis 1 (page unavailable), reports no statistically significant overall effect of men’s family-of-origin aggression on women’s cortisol intercept or slope. But Results, Hypothesis 2 (page unavailable), finds that men’s aggression significantly predicted women’s cortisol slope when men’s attachment avoidance was high. The unqualified claim of no significant relationship omits that conditional finding. (LLM, conf=0.88)

    Experimental — accuracy not yet measured

  • Women's family-of-origin aggression was not significantly related to their partner's hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal reactivity during in-lab emotionally vulnerable interactions between partners (Kazmierski et al., 2020).

    “women’s family-of-origin aggression was not significantly related to their partner’s hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal reactivity (intercepts and the slopes of salivary cortisol levels) during in-lab emotionally vulnerable interactions between partners (Kazmierski et al., 2020)”

    From Partner Effects of Childhood Maltreatment: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis (2024) · cites this paper as Kazmierski et al., 2020

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Cited by

Sorted by citations

Authors
Kazmierski, K. F. M., Beam, C. R., & Margolin, G.
Affiliations
  • University of California, Irvine (US)
  • University of Southern California (US)
ORCID
Venue
Journal of Family Psychology
Publisher
American Psychological Association (APA)
Published
2020-09
Volume
34
Issue
6
Pages
664-675
ISSN
  • 0893-3200 (ISSN-L)
  • 1939-1293
DOI
10.1037/fam0000633
PMC
PMC7416485
OpenAlex
W3005630482
Cited by
3
References
7
Citations by year
2023: 2 · 2021: 1
FWCI
0.43
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Licence
Locations
  • Journal of Family Psychology (publishedVersion, other-oa)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed Central (acceptedVersion)
Funders
  • National Institutes of Health (R21HD072170)
  • National Science Foundation (BCS-1627272, DGE-0937362)
Topics
  • Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Behavioral Neuroscience › Stress Responses and Cortisol
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Attachment and Relationship Dynamics
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Child Abuse and Trauma
Keywords
attachment avoidance, hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis, stress reactivity, young adult couples, romantic relationships, childhood stress, emotional vulnerability, actor-partner effects, dyadic interaction
MeSH terms
Exposure to Violence, Adverse Childhood Experiences, Social Interaction, Adult, Aggression, Female, Humans, Hypothalamo-Hypophyseal System, Male, Object Attachment, Sexual Partners, Young Adult

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