title: Supportive behaviors in adolescent romantic relationships moderate adrenocortical attunement.
abstract: This study investigated dyadic adrenocortical attunement within adolescent romantic relationships. An ethnically diverse sample (42% Latino) of adolescent heterosexual dating couples (N=91 dyads, Mage=16.5 years, SD=0.99) donated eight saliva samples (later assayed for cortisol) over the course of a 3-h laboratory session. Supportive behaviors were coded during a conflict and jealousy interaction task from video recordings, and participants completed pre-and-post task questionnaires. Parallel process latent growth models revealed a strong positive association between the couples' cortisol intercept, indicating that couples show attunement in initial levels of cortisol. Further, observed supportive behavior moderated the strength of the association between dyadic cortisol slopes. The results imply that low levels of supportive behavior predicted stronger adrenocortical attunement in the change in cortisol levels over time between adolescent romantic partners. These findings indicate that even early romantic relationships exhibit coordination of physiological activity. Findings raise the possibility that adrenocortical attunement may be a dyadic pathway through which the proximal social context of early romantic relationships is translated into risk or resilience in health and behavior.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Arizona State University, USA; Institute for Interdisciplinary Salivary Bioscience Research, University of California Irvine, USA; T. Denny Sanford School of Social and Family Dynamics, Arizona State University, USA. Electronic address: thaoha@asu.edu.
authors.forename: Thao
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Ha
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Arizona State University, USA; Institute for Interdisciplinary Salivary Bioscience Research, University of California Irvine, USA.
authors.forename: Ellen Wanheung
authors.initials: EW
authors.lastname: Yeung
authors.affiliation: T. Denny Sanford School of Social and Family Dynamics, Arizona State University, USA.
authors.forename: Adam A
authors.initials: AA
authors.lastname: Rogers
authors.affiliation: T. Denny Sanford School of Social and Family Dynamics, Arizona State University, USA.
authors.forename: Franklin O
authors.initials: FO
authors.lastname: Poulsen
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Arizona State University, USA; Institute for Interdisciplinary Salivary Bioscience Research, University of California Irvine, USA.
authors.forename: Olga
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Kornienko
authors.affiliation: Institute for Interdisciplinary Salivary Bioscience Research, University of California Irvine, USA; Department of Acute and Chronic Care, John Hopkins School of Nursing, USA; Department of Pediatrics, Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, USA; Department of Population, Family, and Reproductive Health, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, USA; Salivary Bioscience Laboratory and Department of Psychology, University of Nebraska, USA.
authors.forename: Douglas A
authors.initials: DA
authors.lastname: Granger
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000294:Adolescent Behavior / Q000502:physiology* / Q000523:psychology; D003220:Conflict, Psychological; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D006854:Hydrocortisone / Q000378:metabolism*; D007398:Interpersonal Relations; D007578:Jealousy; D008297:Male; D012463:Saliva / Q000378:metabolism; D012747:Sexual Partners / Q000523:psychology*
chemical_list: D006854:Hydrocortisone
keywords: Adolescence; Attunement; Conflict interaction; Cortisol; Romantic relationships