1. Attachment avoidance predicts inflammatory responses to marital conflict
- Author
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Gouin, Jean-Philippe, Glaser, Ronald, Loving, Timothy J., Malarkey, William B., Stowell, Jeffrey, Houts, Carrie, and Kiecolt-Glaser, Janice K.
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MARITAL conflict , *INFLAMMATION , *IMMUNOREGULATION , *INTERLEUKIN-6 , *ATTACHMENT behavior , *AVOIDANCE (Psychology) , *MARRIAGE , *HEALTH - Abstract
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]
- Published
- 2009
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