Abstract:
Romantic relationships are one of the primary sources of support in adulthood. Prior work on stress in couples has primarily focused on understanding situations in which one partner is experiencing stress and the other partner is acting as the support provider, such as when one partner is taking a big exam, experiencing a chronic illness, or undergoing a stressor in the lab. In real life, however, couples are likely to also experience stress simultaneously, such as when two working parents have to juggle work, kids, and household duties. This concurrent stress creates potentially difficult situations in which both partners need to receive and provide support. In this talk, I present data on the role of concurrent stress in romantic relationships both before and during the pandemic. I also present a novel lab paradigm designed to help us understand how couples actually navigate these potential pain points in relationships.