Not now, I am too stressed : stress and physical intimacy in early marriage
Although stressful life events can disrupt couples’ emotional connection, prior research paints an inconsistent picture regarding whether stress may also be associated with couples’ likelihood of engaging in physical intimacy. The current study considered whether individuals’ stress must reach a critical threshold before hindering couples’ sexual activity and physical affection. Couples completed two 14-day daily diary tasks during the early years of marriage, for a total of 28 potential days of data. Using this data, we first examined whether the within-person association between daily stress and the likelihood of engaging in physical intimacy might be curvilinear, such that the likelihood of physical intimacy may only be reduced at high levels of daily stress. Contrary to expectations, as stress increased from low to moderate, the likelihood of sexual activity declined. However, this harmful effect of stress tapered off as stress increased from moderate to high levels. For physical affection, a linear effect emerged, such that on days of greater stress, women, but not men, reported lower levels of affection. Second, we examined whether individuals reporting higher chronic stress exhibited a stronger association between their daily stress and physical intimacy. In general, chronic stress did not moderate the association between physical intimacy and daily hassles. Overall, this work highlights the nuanced ways in which stress is linked to a vital component of satisfying relationships.
Physical affection, Relationship quality, Sexual intimacy, Stress
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