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ABSTRACT Introduction Methods Results Discussion Early child development occurs within an interactive environment, initially dominated by parents or caregivers, and is heavily influenced by the dynamics of this social context. The current study probed the neurobiology of “family personality”, or family functioning, in the context of parent–child dyadic interaction using a two‐person neuroimaging modality.One hundred and five parent–child dyads (child mean age 5 years 4 months) were recruited. Functional near‐infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) hyperscanning was employed to measure neural synchrony while dyads completed a mildly stressful interactive task. Family functioning was measured through the Family Adaptability and Cohesion Scale IV (FACES‐IV).Synchrony during stress was significantly greater than synchrony during both baseline and recovery conditions for all dyads. A significant interaction between neural synchrony in each task condition and familial balanced flexibility was found, such that higher levels of balanced flexibility were associated with greater changes in frontal cortex neural synchrony as dyads progressed through the three task conditions.Parent–child dyads from families who display heightened levels of balanced flexibility are also more flexible in their engagement of neural synchrony when shifting between social conditions. This is one of the first studies to utilize a two‐person imaging modality to explore the links between family functioning and interbrain synchrony between parents and their children. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: This paper highlights the facilitation of dyadic synchrony as a core psychotherapist skill that occurs at the non-verbal level and underlies many other therapeutic methods. We define dyadic synchrony, differentiate it from similar constructs, and provide an excerpt illustrating dyadic synchrony in a psychotherapy session. Method: We then present a systematic review of 17 studies that have examined the associations between dyadic synchrony and psychotherapy outcomes. We also conduct a meta-analysis of 8 studies that examined whether there is more synchrony between clients and therapists than would be expected by chance. Results: Weighted box score analysis revealed that the overall association of synchrony and proximal as well as distal outcomes was neutral to mildly positive. The results of the meta-analysis indicated that real client-therapist dyad pairs exhibited synchronized behavioral patterns to a much greater extent than a sample of randomly paired people who did not actually speak. Conclusion: Our discussion revolves around how synchrony can be facilitated in a beneficial way, as well as situations in which it may not be beneficial. We conclude with training implications and therapeutic practices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The goal of the current study was to investigate the contribution of both trait‐like individual differences and dyadic processes to the content of children's conversations. Fifty‐two groups typically consisting of four same‐sex unfamiliar nine‐year‐old children (N = 202) interacted in all possible dyads, resulting in six dyads per group. Each dyad completed a 5‐min frustration task and a 5‐min planning task. Observers coded children's verbalizations into 10 categories and further summed these categories into prosocial (suggest, agree, solicit input, ask, encourage, state personal) and antisocial (command, disagree, discourage, aggress) verbalizations, resulting in 24 variables (12 per task). Across both tasks, Social Relations Model analyses provided evidence of the role of both individual differences [significant effects for actor variance (15 of 24 variables), actor‐actor correlations, and intrapersonal correlations] and dyadic processes [significant effects for partner variance (4 of 24 variables), relationship variance (18 of 24 variables), dyadic reciprocity correlations (10 of 24 variables), and interpersonal correlations] in children's conversations with peers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Understanding associations between mothers' and children's physical activity and sedentary behavior on more fine-grained timescales can provide insights into real-time intervention opportunities. This study examined the extent to which mothers' and their children's device-measured moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA) and sedentary time (SDT) were associated at the day level during non-school time. Mother–child dyads (N = 193; baseline Mean ages = 40.69 ± 6.11 [mother] and 9.57 ± 0.89 [child] years) provided 3,135 paired days of accelerometry data from six bi-annual waves across three years. Controlling for covariates, multilevel models revealed that mothers' and their children's MVPA and SDT were positively associated at the day level during non-school time, both on weekdays and weekends. During weekdays, the day-level association for SDT was stronger for older than younger children, and the day-level association for MVPA was stronger for boys than girls. Designing family-based interventions targeting school-age children and their mothers during non-school time across the week may be useful for promoting active lifestyles. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Dyadic behavioral synchrony is a complex interactional process that takes place between the mother and her infant. In the first year of life, when the infant is prelinguistic, processes such as synchrony enable the dyad to communicate through shared behavior and affect. To date, no systematic review has been carried out to understand the risk and protective factors that influence behavioral synchrony in the mother–infant dyad. The aim of this review was to identify and evaluate the factors that influence behavioral synchrony in the mother–infant dyad, when the infant is between 3 and 9 months old. Key electronic databases were searched between 1970 and April 2021, and 28 eligible studies were identified for review. As the results were largely heterogeneous, four subgroups of factors were identified: (i) infant demographics, (ii) physiological factors, (iii) maternal mental health, and (iv) miscellaneous factors. Identified risk factors and covariates suggest that social determinants of health, underpinned by biological factors, play a large role in influencing behavioral synchrony within the dyad. Implications for the need to identify additional risk and protective factors, as well as design support for at‐risk families are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As many jurisdictions consider in-person learning strategies (including at Institutions of Higher Education, IHE), implementing travel restrictions or quarantines, and/or establishing interstate pacts to reduce COVID-19 spread, this study explores the degree to which COVID-19 case infection rates in a group of neighboring, Southern and Midwestern U.S. states (namely, Arkansas and its contiguous neighbors) are patterned in a non-random way known as synchrony. Utilizing surrogate synchrony (SUSY) to estimate the dyadic coupling between the COVID-19 case infection rate processes in this region from March to December 2020, results indicate that significant synchrony is present between Arkansas and three of its neighbors. The highest level of instantaneous synchrony occurs between Arkansas and Tennessee, with the next highest level occurring between Arkansas and Missouri. There is evidence of directionality in the synchrony, indicating that Arkansas case infection rates lead Mississippi while rates in Missouri and Tennessee lead Arkansas. The lagged cross-correlations suggest the greatest synchrony to occur between 3 and 6 days. To explore the effect of IHE reopening on COVID-19, synchrony is compared between pre- and post-reopening windows. Results suggested that, following reopening, there are gains in detectable synchrony and that COVID-19 is in-flowing to Arkansas from all of its neighboring states. Taken together, results suggest that there is spatiality to COVID-19 with neighboring states having case infection rates that are significantly synchronous at a lag time that would be expected based on symptom onset. This synchrony is potentially strengthened by the in-flow and cross-border movement of IHE students.

Keywords: individual processes; dyadic processes; health outcomes; relationship outcomes; interdependency EN individual processes dyadic processes health outcomes relationship outcomes interdependency 1 4 4 07/24/21 20210721 NES 210721 Introduction Building strong relationships is a fundamental human need, and finding an intimate partner is evolutionary important for survival and procreation (Buss and Schmitt, [4]). Systematically analysing both individual and dyadic processes, Joel and her colleagues (Joel et al., [12]) used machine learning techniques to predict relationship quality across 43 dyadic longitudinal datasets of 11,196 romantic couples (Joel et al., [12]). Most often studied, the big five personality traits interact to predict sexual health (Allen and Walter, [1]) or mental treatment outcomes (Bucher et al., [3]). On the other hand, research findings also indicate that intimate relationships may affect health through biological, behavioural, and psychosocial pathway, shape health and relationship outcomes throughout the life course and have a cumulative impact over time. [Extracted from the article]

Objective: There is a need to understand more of the dyadic processes in therapy and how the therapist's ways of being are experienced and reflected upon by both patient and therapist. The aim of this dyadic case study was to investigate how the therapist's personal presence was perceived by the patient and the therapist as contributing to change. Method: From a larger project on collaborative actions between patient and therapist, a dyadic case involving in-depth interviews of the therapist and patient was selected to examine the research question. Interpretative phenomenological analysis of four interviews with the therapist and one interview with the patient was conducted. Results: The analyses indicated that the therapist's way of being, as perceived by both therapist and patient, was expressed at a superordinate level through the concept of embodied listening, which was of particular help for the patient, and influenced by the therapist's theoretical orientation, as well as being rooted in his own personal history. Three sub-themes emerged from the analysis, each illustrating how embodied listening contributed to the therapeutic relationship and process. Our findings flesh out how the underlying phenomena of emotional attunement, presence, and genuineness are observable in therapeutic encounters. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although children display strong individual differences in emotion expression, they also engage in emotional synchrony or reciprocity with interaction partners. To understand this paradox between trait-like and dyadic influences, the goal of the current study was to investigate children's emotion expression using a Social Relations Model (SRM) approach. Playgroups consisting typically of four same-sex unfamiliar nine-year-old children ( N = 202) interacted in a round-robin format (6 dyads per group). Each dyad completed two 5-minute tasks, a challenging frustration task and a cooperative planning task. Observers coded children's emotions during the tasks (happy, sad, angry, anxious, neutral) on a second-by-second basis. SRM analyses provided substantial evidence of both the trait-like nature of children's emotion expression (through significant effects for actor variance, multivariate actor-actor correlations, and multivariate intrapersonal correlations) and the dyadic nature of their emotion expression (through significant effects for partner variance, relationship variance, dyadic reciprocity correlations, and multivariate interpersonal correlations)., Competing Interests: No authors have any conflicts of interest to report.

There is a growing consensus among psychotherapy theoreticians and researchers that psychotherapy processes are an interpersonal phenomenon that can be studied as a dynamic system. The aim of this special section is to highlight the importance of exploring the complex processes that emerge over time from interactions and feedback loops amongst sub-components (e.g., emotions, non-verbal behavior, physiology, voice, subjective experience) within and between clients and therapists. The articles featured in this special section discuss multiple methods and angles to study dynamic dyadic processes in psychotherapy that can better capture the complexity of the therapeutic process and the ways it can lead to favorable outcomes. Future research that focuses on dynamic dyadic processes in psychotherapy is outlined. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper demonstrates a recently-popularized quantitative method, the time-varying effect model (TVEM), in describing dynamic, momentary interpersonal processes implicated by Interpersonal Theory. We investigated moment-to-moment complementarity in affiliation and control behaviors (i.e., correspondence in affiliation and reciprocity in control between married dyad members) in a five-minute interaction (N = 135), and how complementarity changed over time. Overall, results supported complementarity in affiliation and control. Moreover, effects were time-varying: Complementarity in affiliation increased over time and complementary in control changed over time in a cyclical manner. Dyadic adjustment moderated the strength in complementarity in control during specific timeframes. We discuss implications of these results and future directions. The findings support the utility of TVEM for studying dynamic and time-dependent interpersonal processes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While research links interpersonal processes to posttraumatic growth (PTG; Calhoun & Tedeschi, 2006a), little is known about whether partners’ PTG has consequences for people’s (i.e., actors’) relationship functioning and psychological distress. Sixty-one married couples who had experienced severe flooding completed measures of PTG, perceptions of spouses’ PTG, relationship quality, and psychological distress 6 and 12 months following the event. Partners’ increased PTG predicted actors’ increased perceptions of partners’ PTG, which predicted actors’ increased relationship quality, which, in turn, predicted actors’ decreased psychological distress. Thus, partners’ PTG can benefit spouses’ evaluations of their relationship and, ultimately, actors’ psychological well-being. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Objective: Drawing on theories of bidirectional influence between relationship partners (Butler, 2011; Diamond & Aspinwall, 2003), the authors applied dyadic analytic methods to test convergence in cortisol patterns over time in newlywed couples. Method: Previous studies of bidirectional influence in couples' cortisol levels (Liu, Rovine, Klein, & Almeida, 2013; Papp, Pendry, Simon, & Adam, 2013; Saxbe & Repetti, 2010) found significant covariation in couples' daily cortisol levels over several days, but no studies have tested whether cortisol response similarity increases over time using a longitudinal design. In the present study, 183 opposite sex couples (366 participants) engaged in a conflict discussion in a laboratory visit about 6 months after their marriage, and again about 2 years into the marriage. At each visit, spouses provided saliva samples that indexed cortisol levels before, during, and after the discussion. This multimeasure procedure enabled modeling of spouses' cortisol trajectories around the conflict discussion. Results: Findings showed significant convergence in couples' cortisol trajectories across the early years of marriage; couples showed significantly greater similarity in cortisol trajectories around the conflict discussion as their relationship matured. Cohabitation length predicted stronger convergence in cortisol slopes prior to the conflict discussion. Couples' relationship dissatisfaction was associated with a greater degree of convergence in spouses' acute cortisol levels during the conflict discussion. Conclusions: Findings suggest that spouses increasingly shape each other's cortisol responses as their relationship matures. Findings also indicated that increased similarity in acute cortisol levels during conflict may be associated with poorer relationship functioning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Attributions-the explanations spouses give to each other's behavior-have been consistently linked to relationship satisfaction, but little is known about the origins of attributional tendencies. In this study, an actor-partner interdependence model was tested to examine the relationships among pessimistic attributions, anxious attachment, and relationship satisfaction, using married couples ( N = 767) from The German Family Panel Analysis of Intimate Relationships and Family Dynamics ( pairfam; Huinink et al., 2011). For husbands and wives, higher levels of anxious attachment predicted more pessimistic attributions 2 years later. These pessimistic attributions, in turn, predicted their own later relationship satisfaction. Husbands' pessimistic attributions also predicted lower wives' relationship satisfaction. Pessimistic attributions fully mediated the relationship between anxious attachment and relationship satisfaction within spouses. It may be beneficial when intervening with couples to facilitate improvement in their attachment security and thereby promote more optimistic attributions and higher relationship satisfaction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The focus of the present longitudinal study, to examine mother-infant interaction during the administration of immunizations at 2 and 6 months of age, used hidden Markov modelling, a time series approach that produces latent states to describe how mothers and infants work together to bring the infant to a soothed state. Results revealed a four-state model for the dyadic responses to a 2-month inoculation whereas a six-state model best described the dyadic process at 6 months. Two of the states at 2 months and three of the states at 6 months suggested a progression from high-intensity crying to no crying with parents using vestibular and auditory soothing methods. The use of feeding and/or pacifying to soothe the infant characterized one 2-month state and two 6-month states. These data indicate that with maturation and experience, the mother-infant dyad is becoming more organized around the soothing interaction. Using hidden Markov modelling to describe individual differences, as well as normative processes, is also presented and discussed. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines the link between dyadic conflicts in goal-relevant activities and well-being using simultaneous daily life assessments from 59 employed parents who participated in a one-week time-sampling study. Findings indicate that partnerships characterized by conflicts regarding the simultaneous pursuit of goal-relevant activities are associated with low spousal affective well-being and psychological functioning as compared to partnerships allowing for a simultaneous pursuit of goals. The results of this study speak to the importance of investigating the interdependence among the daily activities of multiple actors when examining well-being and psychological functioning in employed parents. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

We used actor-partner interdependence modeling to explore associations among attachment-related dyadic processes, posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in war veterans, and secondary traumatic stress (STS) in their wives. A sample of 157 Israeli couples (85 former prisoners of war and their wives and a comparison group of 72 veterans not held captive and their wives) completed self-report scales assessing attachment insecurities (anxiety, avoidance) and PTSD symptoms. For both groups of veterans and their wives, attachment anxiety was associated with the severity of their own and their spouses' PTSD and STS. Avoidant attachment was associated with PTSD and STS only in couples that included a former prisoner of war. A complex pattern of associations involving avoidant attachment was observed in the actor-partner analyses of these couples. The study demonstrates that attachment-related dyadic processes play a role in the development and maintenance of PTSD in traumatized veterans and STS in their wives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Peer interaction is an important component of children's social repertoires that is associated with a variety of developmental outcomes and life skills. The present study provides an in-depth study of early dyadic peer behaviors during the infancy period, during which social competence with peers is first being developed. Results from variable-centered analyses highlight the effectiveness of behaviors, such as offering objects to peers, and point to the importance of the social context set by a peer's prior social behavior and processes for eliciting peer responses. Findings from person-centered analyses reveal marked individual differences in the processes through which infants are successful in eliciting responses from their peers, illustrating the presence of multiple pathways to achieving social competence with peers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although a majority of adults live with a close relationship partner, little is known about whether and how partners' momentary affect and physiology covary, or "coregulate." This study used a dyadic multilevel modeling approach to explore the coregulation of spouses' mood states and cortisol levels in 30 married couples who sampled saliva and reported on mood States 4 times per day for 3 days. For both husbands and wives, own cortisol level was positively associated with partner's cortisol level, even after sampling time was controlled. For wives, marital satisfaction weakened the strength of this effect. Partner's negative mood was positively associated with own negative mood for both husbands and wives. Marital satisfaction fully moderated this effect, reducing the strength of the association between one's own and one's partner's negative mood states. Spouses' positive moods were not correlated. As expected, within-couple coregulation coefficients were stronger when mood and cortisol were sampled in the early morning and evening, when spouses were together at home, than during the workday. The results suggest that spouses' fluctuations in negative mood and cortisol levels are linked over several days and that marital satisfaction may buffer spouses from their partners' negative mood or stress state. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present study addressed hypotheses about cyclical entrainment between interacting dyad members in their moment-to-moment levels of dominance and affiliation. Using a computer joystick technique, observers recorded the continuous stream of behavior for each partner in 50 mixed-sex dyads, and the data for each dyad were submitted to time-series analyses, including cross-spectral analysis. Although potentially interesting individual differences emerged, in most dyads, partners shared behavior cycles of roughly the same frequency with strongly correlated variations in amplitude (coherence). Consistent with interpersonal theory, partners' affiliation behaviors were very strongly in phase, whereas their dominance behaviors were equally strongly out of phase. In addition, these cyclical forms of interpersonal complementarity were distinguishable from other forms, such as mutual adjustment in overall levels. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As increasing numbers of children are born to unmarried parents, there is a growing need to understand the dynamics of these unions, including their quality, stability, and marriage formation. One aspect of quality is the extent to which partners are emotionally supportive of one another, and this study examines the association of this interdependent emotional supportiveness with couples' union transitions. Using the first two waves of the Fragile Families survey, the analysis compares married, unmarried cohabiting, and unmarried nonresident parents. It finds that couples where neither partner is supportive, as well as some couples where only one partner is supportive, have lower chances of maintaining a stable union and, for unmarried couples, of forming a marriage. For both transitions, active forms of supportiveness appear more salient than verbal expressions of support. This study indicates that couples benefit from active and interdependent emotional support, suggesting that programs and policy aimed at strengthening the relationships of unmarried parents should consider the emotional equity between partners. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: A dyadic methodological and statistical approach to social power is used to test the notion that an individual’s power and a partner’s power have distinct effects on the individual’s emotional experience. Two studies examined actor and partner effects of social power on emotion within dyadic interactions. Across interpersonal contexts and measures of social power, the individual’s own social power, theorized to activate behavioral approach, was associated with positive emotion (an actor effect). In contrast, being subject to a partner’s elevated social power, theorized to activate behavioral inhibition, was associated with increased negative emotion (a partner effect). The discussion focuses on how dyadic methodological and statistical approaches point to new lines of inquiry in the study of social power. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

As many jurisdictions consider in-person learning strategies (including at Institutions of Higher Education, IHE), implementing travel restrictions or quarantines, and/or establishing interstate pacts to reduce COVID-19 spread, this study explores the degree to which COVID-19 case infection rates in a group of neighboring, Southern and Midwestern U.S. states (namely, Arkansas and its contiguous neighbors) are patterned in a non-random way known as synchrony. Utilizing surrogate synchrony (SUSY) to estimate the dyadic coupling between the COVID-19 case infection rate processes in this region from March to December 2020, results indicate that significant synchrony is present between Arkansas and three of its neighbors. The highest level of instantaneous synchrony occurs between Arkansas and Tennessee, with the next highest level occurring between Arkansas and Missouri. There is evidence of directionality in the synchrony, indicating that Arkansas case infection rates lead Mississippi while rates in Missouri and Tennessee lead Arkansas. The lagged cross-correlations suggest the greatest synchrony to occur between 3 and 6 days. To explore the effect of IHE reopening on COVID-19, synchrony is compared between pre- and post-reopening windows. Results suggested that, following reopening, there are gains in detectable synchrony and that COVID-19 is in-flowing to Arkansas from all of its neighboring states. Taken together, results suggest that there is spatiality to COVID-19 with neighboring states having case infection rates that are significantly synchronous at a lag time that would be expected based on symptom onset. This synchrony is potentially strengthened by the in-flow and cross-border movement of IHE students., Competing Interests: The author declares that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2021 Robinson.)