Spousal support may help ameliorate the health consequences of stressful situations by downregulating cortisol. To examine how cortisol levels change in conjunction with spousal social support during discussions of a stressful situation, 191 married couples engaged in two 10-minute interactions addressing a personal (i.e., non-marital) problem. We coded for positive and negative social support provision and receipt, assessed the perception of received support, and collected salivary cortisol samples. We found that wives’ display of more negative behaviors while receiving support was associated with an increase in wives’ cortisol levels via an indirect (mediated) effect of perceived partner responsiveness. Overall, results suggest a link between support behaviors, changes in cortisol and perceived partner responsiveness, with more consistent links between support behaviors and responsiveness ratings relative to other paths, and cortisol effects found more often in wives than husbands. Exploratory analyses also suggest that cortisol levels coming into an interaction may impact elements of support interactions. The implications of the role of cortisol and partner responsiveness to the provision of spousal support are discussed.

中文翻译：

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社会支持和感知到的伴侣反应与已婚夫妇的唾液皮质醇具有复杂的关联

配偶赡养可以通过下调皮质醇来帮助改善压力情况对健康的影响。为了研究在讨论压力情况时皮质醇水平如何与配偶的社会支持一起变化，191 对已婚夫妇进行了两次 10 分钟的互动，以解决个人（即非婚姻）问题。我们对积极和消极的社会支持提供和接受进行编码，评估对接受支持的看法，并收集唾液皮质醇样本。我们发现，妻子在接受支持时表现出更多的消极行为，通过感知伴侣反应的间接（介导）效应，与妻子皮质醇水平的增加有关。总体而言，结果表明支持行为、皮质醇变化和感知的伴侣反应性之间存在联系，相对于其他路径，支持行为和反应性评级之间的联系更加一致，而且皮质醇效应在妻子身上比在丈夫身上更常见。探索性分析还表明，互动中的皮质醇水平可能会影响支持互动的要素。讨论了皮质醇的作用和伴侣对提供配偶赡养费的反应的影响。