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1. Affectionate Touch Promotes Shared Positive Activities

   https://doi.org/10.1177/01461672221083764  

   Jakubiak, Brett K.; Fuentes, Julian D.; Feeney, Brooke C. (July 2022, Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin)

   Shared positive activities, such as engaging conversations and interactive play, enhance relationships and buffer the consequences of negative interactions. The current research tested whether affectionate touch (a prime target for intervention) encourages people to prioritize other shared positive activities and to view shared activities more positively. In a pre-registered dyadic diary study of married couples (Study 1), greater affectionate touch on one day predicted increases in shared positive activities concurrently and prospectively. In a pre-registered dyadic experiment (Study 2), a brief affectionate touch intervention increased self-reported (but not observer-rated) shared positive activities immediately and increased shared positive activities over the following week for people who do not typically engage in such activities. Participants assigned to touch (particularly those low in attachment anxiety) also perceived their partners more positively during shared activities. These results suggest that touch may facilitate positive relationship experiences broadly and supports a theoretical model of affectionate touch. 

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2. Mechanisms Linking Attachment Orientation to Sleep Quality in Married Couples

   https://doi.org/10.1177/01461672221123859  

   Xie, Yuxi; Chin, Brian N.; Feeney, Brooke C. (September 2022, Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin)

   There is emerging evidence for links between relationship factors and sleep quality. Existing research linking attachment orientation to sleep quality has yielded inconsistent effects, has focused on younger samples, and has not considered underlying mechanisms of action. This research addressed these gaps in two studies that investigated the links between attachment orientation and sleep quality in both younger/middle-aged (Study 1) and older (Study 2) adult couples using Actor–Partner Interdependence Models. We also tested mediating effects of relationship-specific security and negative affect. In both studies, participants completed surveys assessing their attachment orientation, sleep quality, and the proposed mediators. Both studies revealed that relationship-specific security and negative affect mediated the negative association between insecure attachment and one’s own sleep quality. This research enhances our understanding of how attachment orientation affects sleep quality, provides a foundation for future research on relationship influences on sleep, and suggests avenues for improving sleep quality. 

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3. Attachment and sleep: A dyadic intensive longitudinal actigraphy study

   https://doi.org/10.1177/0265407520958476  

   Haydon, Katherine C.; Moss, Corrin (January 2021, Journal of Social and Personal Relationships)

   null (Ed.)

   Attachment and sleep are linked across the lifespan, but attachment regulation of sleep among couples is understudied. This study aimed to replicate and extend prior research by testing whether romantic partners’ attachment orientations interacted to predict sleep, assessed via self-report and actigraphy over 14 days. Participants ( N = 208 couples) completed measures of attachment anxiety and avoidance and the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index. They also wore actigraphy monitors to assess nightly sleep quality and duration. Anxious people self-reported worse sleep quality, replicating two prior studies. In contrast to previous studies, anxious and low-avoidant people slept significantly worse with avoidant partners, while avoidant people slept somewhat better with avoidant partners. Results indicted dyadic regulation of several sleep outcomes and provided new insights regarding how partner avoidance can exacerbate or buffer sleep quality. 

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4. Out of sight but in mind: Experimentally activating partner representations in daily life buffers against common stressors.

   https://doi.org/10.1037/emo0001419  

   Zayas, Vivian; Urganci, Betul; Strycharz, Steve (March 2025, Emotion)

   Lab experiments have shown that reminders of romantic partners buffer against stressors. Yet, tightly controlled experiments do not mimic what transpires in people’s actual lives. Thus, an important question is as follows: To what extent do reminders of romantic partners confer affective bene ts when they occur“in the wild” as people experience their daily activities? To capture people’s emotional experience in real time, two studies, each spanning 3 months, used event-contingent ecological momentary assessments with a within-subject experimental manipulation. Prior to encountering a stressful event (taking an exam), participants received either a supportive text message from their partner or no message (Studies 1 and 2), or a supportive text message from the research team (Study 2). Receiving supportive partner messages, compared to no messages or messages from the research team, led to less negative affect and greater positive affect, and to less negative affect and greater positive affect about the exam itself. Receiving supportive partner messages had no statistically signi cant effects on subjective stress. Interestingly, the quality of the partner messages, as coded by independent raters, did not signi cantly predict the magnitude of the affective bene ts. These ndings suggest that receiving any supportive partner message, and not necessarily more subtle differences in the quality of the message, may be the key ingredient for these bene ts to occur. The present work advances understanding of how the symbolic presence of partners confers affective regulatory bene ts in everyday life. Implications for emotion regulation and the utility of integrating perspectives from adult attachment are discussed. 

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5. Linguistic and Social Factors Favoring Acquisition of Contrast in a New Dialect

   Nycz, Jennifer (July 2019, Proceedings of the 19th International Congress of Phonetic Sciences, Melbourne, Australia 2019)

   This study describes linguistic and social factors favoring acquisition of a low back vowel contrast by native speakers of Canadian English living in New York City (NYC). Previous literature has found that new phonemic distinctions seem difficult to acquire, both in L2 and D2 (second dialect) learning contexts. In contrast, this analysis shows that Canadian expats who have been exposed to NYC English due to mobility show small but significant distinctions between the COT and CAUGHT classes. Intriguingly, the social factor most strongly influencing the magnitude of this new contrast is not total years spent in NYC or even identification as a New Yorker, but choice of partner: Canadians married to New Yorkers show greater COT/CAUGHT contrast. These findings suggest that long term, consistent input from a regular and important interlocutor may facilitate the acquisition of new contrasts in a second dialect. 

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