Cargando…

Actor and Partner Effects of Touch: Touch-Induced Stress Alleviation Is Influenced by Perceived Relationship Quality of the Couple

Because of the impact of close partner's touch on psychological and physical well-being by alleviating stress, it is important to explore the influence factors that underlie the stress-alleviating effect of close partner's touch. Previous studies suggested that the stress-alleviating effec...

Descripción completa

Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Liu, Difei, Piao, Yi, Ma, Ru, Zhang, Yongjun, Guo, Wen, Zuo, Lin, Liu, Weili, Song, Hongwen, Zhang, Xiaochu
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Frontiers Media S.A. 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8076733/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33927670
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.661438
_version_ 1783684744192458752
author Liu, Difei
Piao, Yi
Ma, Ru
Zhang, Yongjun
Guo, Wen
Zuo, Lin
Liu, Weili
Song, Hongwen
Zhang, Xiaochu
author_facet Liu, Difei
Piao, Yi
Ma, Ru
Zhang, Yongjun
Guo, Wen
Zuo, Lin
Liu, Weili
Song, Hongwen
Zhang, Xiaochu
author_sort Liu, Difei
collection PubMed
description Because of the impact of close partner's touch on psychological and physical well-being by alleviating stress, it is important to explore the influence factors that underlie the stress-alleviating effect of close partner's touch. Previous studies suggested that the stress-alleviating effect was different when individuals were touched by different persons. Specifically, the stress was reduced significantly when the individual was touched by the close partner compared with the acquaintance and the stranger. However, whether the stress-alleviating effect of touch was modulated by the close relationship quality is unknown. To examine this question, the participants (n = 61) performed a 3 (i.e., alone, partner no-touch, and partner touch) × 2 (i.e., safety and threat) within-subjects experiment. The results revealed that the stress of the participants alleviated significantly while close partners present with touch compared with without touch during facing a threat. We also found that the relationship quality of couple-members (i.e., participants perceiving the quality of alternatives and the partners' commitment level) modulated touch-induced stress alleviation. Participants perceiving the low quality of alternatives and the high partners' commitment level showed stronger touch-induced stress-alleviating effect than participants perceiving the high quality of alternatives and the low partners' commitment level. The explained variance was around 16.8% jointly for actor and partner effects. These findings provide evidence for explaining the reasons for touch-induced alleviating stress and have important implications for predicting the future effect of interactive behaviors.
format Online
Article
Text
id pubmed-8076733
institution National Center for Biotechnology Information
language English
publishDate 2021
publisher Frontiers Media S.A.
record_format MEDLINE/PubMed
spelling pubmed-80767332021-04-28 Actor and Partner Effects of Touch: Touch-Induced Stress Alleviation Is Influenced by Perceived Relationship Quality of the Couple Liu, Difei Piao, Yi Ma, Ru Zhang, Yongjun Guo, Wen Zuo, Lin Liu, Weili Song, Hongwen Zhang, Xiaochu Front Psychol Psychology Because of the impact of close partner's touch on psychological and physical well-being by alleviating stress, it is important to explore the influence factors that underlie the stress-alleviating effect of close partner's touch. Previous studies suggested that the stress-alleviating effect was different when individuals were touched by different persons. Specifically, the stress was reduced significantly when the individual was touched by the close partner compared with the acquaintance and the stranger. However, whether the stress-alleviating effect of touch was modulated by the close relationship quality is unknown. To examine this question, the participants (n = 61) performed a 3 (i.e., alone, partner no-touch, and partner touch) × 2 (i.e., safety and threat) within-subjects experiment. The results revealed that the stress of the participants alleviated significantly while close partners present with touch compared with without touch during facing a threat. We also found that the relationship quality of couple-members (i.e., participants perceiving the quality of alternatives and the partners' commitment level) modulated touch-induced stress alleviation. Participants perceiving the low quality of alternatives and the high partners' commitment level showed stronger touch-induced stress-alleviating effect than participants perceiving the high quality of alternatives and the low partners' commitment level. The explained variance was around 16.8% jointly for actor and partner effects. These findings provide evidence for explaining the reasons for touch-induced alleviating stress and have important implications for predicting the future effect of interactive behaviors. Frontiers Media S.A. 2021-04-13 /pmc/articles/PMC8076733/ /pubmed/33927670 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.661438 Text en Copyright © 2021 Liu, Piao, Ma, Zhang, Guo, Zuo, Liu, Song and Zhang. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
spellingShingle Psychology
Liu, Difei
Piao, Yi
Ma, Ru
Zhang, Yongjun
Guo, Wen
Zuo, Lin
Liu, Weili
Song, Hongwen
Zhang, Xiaochu
Actor and Partner Effects of Touch: Touch-Induced Stress Alleviation Is Influenced by Perceived Relationship Quality of the Couple
title Actor and Partner Effects of Touch: Touch-Induced Stress Alleviation Is Influenced by Perceived Relationship Quality of the Couple
title_full Actor and Partner Effects of Touch: Touch-Induced Stress Alleviation Is Influenced by Perceived Relationship Quality of the Couple
title_fullStr Actor and Partner Effects of Touch: Touch-Induced Stress Alleviation Is Influenced by Perceived Relationship Quality of the Couple
title_full_unstemmed Actor and Partner Effects of Touch: Touch-Induced Stress Alleviation Is Influenced by Perceived Relationship Quality of the Couple
title_short Actor and Partner Effects of Touch: Touch-Induced Stress Alleviation Is Influenced by Perceived Relationship Quality of the Couple
title_sort actor and partner effects of touch: touch-induced stress alleviation is influenced by perceived relationship quality of the couple
topic Psychology
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8076733/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33927670
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.661438
work_keys_str_mv AT liudifei actorandpartnereffectsoftouchtouchinducedstressalleviationisinfluencedbyperceivedrelationshipqualityofthecouple
AT piaoyi actorandpartnereffectsoftouchtouchinducedstressalleviationisinfluencedbyperceivedrelationshipqualityofthecouple
AT maru actorandpartnereffectsoftouchtouchinducedstressalleviationisinfluencedbyperceivedrelationshipqualityofthecouple
AT zhangyongjun actorandpartnereffectsoftouchtouchinducedstressalleviationisinfluencedbyperceivedrelationshipqualityofthecouple
AT guowen actorandpartnereffectsoftouchtouchinducedstressalleviationisinfluencedbyperceivedrelationshipqualityofthecouple
AT zuolin actorandpartnereffectsoftouchtouchinducedstressalleviationisinfluencedbyperceivedrelationshipqualityofthecouple
AT liuweili actorandpartnereffectsoftouchtouchinducedstressalleviationisinfluencedbyperceivedrelationshipqualityofthecouple
AT songhongwen actorandpartnereffectsoftouchtouchinducedstressalleviationisinfluencedbyperceivedrelationshipqualityofthecouple
AT zhangxiaochu actorandpartnereffectsoftouchtouchinducedstressalleviationisinfluencedbyperceivedrelationshipqualityofthecouple