If you’re in a long-term relationship, the unfortunate reality is that you’ll likely have had at least one disagreement with your partner at one point or another.
However, a new study, conducted by researchers at Binghamton University in New York, says that such interactions can lead to the release of an unwanted chemical in the human body.
Having an unsupportive partner can increase your stress levels
Published in the Journal of Social and Personal Relationships, the study examined a sample of 191 heterosexual married couples to investigate whether different ways of communicating with their partners impacted cortisol levels within their respective systems.
Cortisol is a naturally occurring hormone in the body that is most commonly associated with alertness or stress. Its presence can be beneficial in helping to manage our sleep cycle and can also boost energy when facing stressful situations. However, too much cortisol can lead to other issues such as anxiety, depression, headaches, memory and concentration problems, and trouble sleeping.
As part of the study, researchers got participants to take part in two 10-minute discussions about personal issues in their lives, taking note of instances where partners showed either positive or negative support to each other and subsequently measured their cortisol levels to assess how stressful they found the conversation.
The study discovered that partners who offered more positive support during their conversations had lower levels of cortisol than an unsupportive partner who responded more negatively during the session.
“We found that wives who received support more negatively (e.g., rejecting help) felt less understood, validated and cared for by a partner, which had a ‘stress-amplifying’ effect, meaning cortisol increased across the interaction,” said Richard Mattson, a professor of psychology at Binghamton in a news release. “Couples felt more understood, validated and cared for when their partners showed positive support skills, and less so when they showed negative communication skills.”
An unexpected occurrence
While the levels of cortisol changed depending on how participants’ conversations went, researchers noticed another surprising trend.
The levels of cortisol taken before the session seemingly acted as a predictor of how the interaction itself would play out, with those under more stress prior to the conversation experiencing a greater rise in cortisol.
“Our research more strongly showed how perceptions of support interactions shape our experience,” said Hayley Fivecoat, the lead author of the paper. “How each partner perceived the interaction was highly associated with how supportive and responsive they believed the partner to be more generally.”
“One possibility is that perceptions of how supportive a partner is can build over time and across several interactions; and the more general picture shapes how particular behaviors – good or bad – might be viewed in the moment,” she added.
“Alternatively, it is possible that different types of support behaviors are needed for different people experiencing different kinds of problems, and so looking at specific behaviors across couples becomes less relevant,” Fivecoat continued. “In either case, those who perceived themselves as having a supportive partner in general tended to have the lowest levels of cortisol at baseline and following the interaction.”
