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Objective: Although positive marital quality is usually associated with lower chronic low-grade inflammation, not everyone benefits equally from spousal support. Exposure to early life adversity (ELA) has been proposed as a factor that may impede the social buffering effect of positive social relationships. The goal of this study was to test whether ELA would moderate the impact of marital quality on inflammation., Method: This cross-sectional study examined 168 partnered middle-aged women who either were experiencing a current chronic caregiving stressor, raising an adolescent with an autism spectrum disorder or intellectual disability, or who had the normative parenting experience of raising a typically developing adolescent. Participants completed self-report questionnaires on marital satisfaction, dyadic coping, and perceived partner responsiveness to create a composite index of marital quality, and they filled out the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire to assess ELA exposure. Participants also provided plasma samples for the assessment of interleukin-6, tumor necrosis factor-α, and C-reactive protein, three circulating biomarkers of inflammation., Results: ELA moderated the association between marital quality and inflammation. Among individuals who endorsed lower ELA exposure, there was a significant, negative association between marital quality and interleukin-6 and tumor necrosis factor-α levels. However, this association was attenuated and not statistically significant among participants who reported higher ELA exposure. This effect was independent of current chronic stress., Conclusions: These findings suggest that ELA may impair the social buffering effect of marital quality on inflammation. This impaired social buffering effect may be another mechanism through which ELA promotes sustained elevations in inflammation over time. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved).

Abstract: Different aspects of personal relationships including social integration, social support, and social conflict have been related to inflammation. This article summarizes evidence linking the quality and quantity of relationships with gene expression, intracellular signaling mechanisms, and inflammatory biomarkers, and highlights the biological and psychological pathways through which close relationships impact inflammatory responses. Relationship conflict and lower social support can effectively modulate proinflammatory cytokine secretion both directly (via CNS/neural/endocrine/immune biobehavioral pathways), and indirectly, by promoting depression, emotional stress responses, and detrimental health behaviors. Accordingly, thorough assessments of health behaviors and attention to key methodological issues are necessary to identify the contributions of relationships to inflammation, and thus we highlight procedural issues to be considered in the design of studies. Despite some notable methodological challenges, the evidence suggests that learning more about how close relationships influence inflammation will provide important new insights into the ways that relationships impact health. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary: Animal studies have implicated oxytocin and vasopressin in social bonding, physiological stress responses, and wound healing. In humans, endogenous oxytocin and vasopressin levels covary with perceptions of relationship quality, marital behaviors, and physiological stress responses. To investigate relationships among marital behavior, oxytocin, vasopressin, and wound healing, and to determine the characteristics of individuals with the highest neuropeptide levels, 37 couples were admitted for a 24-h visit in a hospital research unit. After small blister wounds were created on their forearm, couples participated in a structured social support interaction task. Blister sites were monitored daily following discharge to assess wound repair speed. Blood samples were collected for oxytocin, vasopressin, and cytokine analyses. Higher oxytocin levels were associated with more positive communication behaviors during the structured interaction task. Furthermore, individuals in the upper oxytocin quartile healed blister wounds faster than participants in lower oxytocin quartiles. Higher vasopressin levels were related to fewer negative communication behaviors and greater tumor necrosis factor-α production. Moreover, women in the upper vasopressin quartile healed the experimental wounds faster than the remainder of the sample. These data confirm and extend prior evidence implicating oxytocin and vasopressin in couples’ positive and negative communication behaviors, and also provide further evidence of their role in an important health outcome, wound healing. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Marital stress has been associated with immune dysregulation, including increased production of interleukin-6 (IL-6). Attachment style, one’s expectations about the availability and responsiveness of others in intimate relationships, appears to influence physiological stress reactivity and thus could influence inflammatory responses to marital conflict. Thirty-five couples were invited for two 24-h admissions to a hospital research unit. The first visit included a structured social support interaction, while the second visit comprised the discussion of a marital disagreement. A mixed effect within-subject repeated measure model indicated that attachment avoidance significantly influenced IL-6 production during the conflict visit but not during the social support visit. Individuals with higher attachment avoidance had on average an 11% increase in total IL-6 production during the conflict visit as compared to the social support visit, while individuals with lower attachment avoidance had, on average, a 6% decrease in IL-6 production during the conflict visit as compared to the social support visit. Furthermore, greater attachment avoidance was associated with a higher frequency of negative behaviors and a lower frequency of positive behaviors during the marital interaction, providing a mechanism by which attachment avoidance may influence inflammatory responses to marital conflict. In sum, these results suggest that attachment avoidance modulates marital behavior and stress-induced immune dysregulation. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]