Stress and positive dyadic interaction : a daily diary study.

The present study investigated the relationship between stress, positive communication, and relationship satisfaction. Theoretically, increased exposure to stress has been linked to decreases in relationship satisfaction. The hypothesized pathways through which this occurs includes positive communication behavior and affect. This study used the daily diary technique to gather data regarding couple interaction from 80 undergraduate students over the course of five days. Hierarchical linear modeling was used to analyze within-person and between-person effects. As expected, this study found a negative relationship between exposure to daily stressors and relationship satisfaction at the within-person level. This effect is mediated by negative affect but not positive affect also at the within-person level. Due to high correlation between the positive communication and couple satisfaction measures, the positive communication mediation pathway could not be assessed. The implications of these results and areas for future study are discussed.