The Impact of Early Interpersonal Experience on Adult Romantic Relationship Functioning: Recent Findings From the Minnesota Longitudinal Study of Risk and Adaptation
Open accessAbstract
Adopting an organizational view on social development, we have investigated how interpersonal experiences early in life predict how well individuals will resolve relationship conflicts, recover from conflicts, and have stable, satisfying relationships with their romantic partners in early adulthood. We have also identified specific interpersonal experiences during middle childhood and adolescence that mediate the connection between how individuals regulated their emotions with their parents very early in life and how they do so as young adults in their romantic relationships. We discuss the many advantages of adopting an organizational view on social development.
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Animal and human studies indicate that similar neural systems and behavioral patterns underpin the parent-infant and pair bonds.
“Animal24 and human studies25 indicate that similar neural systems and behavioral patterns underpin the parent-infant and pair bonds and demonstrate that both forms of human attachment are characterized by behavioral synchrony26–28.”
From Brain-to-Brain Synchrony during Naturalistic Social Interactions (2017) · cites this paper as [25]
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- Authors
- Simpson, J. A., Collins, W. A., & Salvatore, J. E.
- Affiliations
- University of Minnesota (US)
- Venue
- Current Directions in Psychological Science
- Publisher
- SAGE Publications
- Published
- 2011-12
- Volume
- 20
- Issue
- 6
- Pages
- 355-359
- ISSN
- 0963-7214 (ISSN-L)
- 1467-8721
- PMC
- PMC3391598
- OpenAlex
- W2151778561
- Cited by
- 76
- References
- 22
- Citations by year
- 2026: 3 · 2025: 3 · 2024: 4 · 2023: 5 · 2022: 5 · 2021: 4 · 2020: 3 · 2019: 8 · 2018: 4 · 2017: 8 · 2016: 4 · 2015: 8 · 2014: 3 · 2013: 12 · 2012: 2
- FWCI
- 7.42
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
- Locations
- Current Directions in Psychological Science (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (acceptedVersion)
- PubMed Central (acceptedVersion)
- Funders
- National Institute of Mental Health (R01MH049599, R01MH040864, T32MH015755)
- Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (R01HD054850)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Attachment and Relationship Dynamics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Child and Adolescent Psychosocial and Emotional Development
- Social Sciences › Demography › Family Dynamics and Relationships
- Keywords
- romantic relationships, conflict recovery, relationship satisfaction, emotion regulation, parent-child relationship, middle childhood, adolescence, early adulthood
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