I Can't Handle Our Stress: "" Associations between Emotion Dysregulation and Couples' Experiences of Internal Stress from an Observational Study

Prior research has found an association between individual's resports of emotion dysregulation and experiences of stress; however, little work has been done to examine these constructs in the context of romantic relationships. To address this gap in the literature, the present study investigated the proposed association between individual reports of emotion dysregulation and experiences of internal stress. Additionally, data taken from couples' real-time conversations examined how reports of emotion dysregulation were associated with feelings about one's partner following an internal stress conversation. Data from 44 heterosexual romantic couples was used at two time points, baseline and momentary interaction data. Results did not show support for an association between emotion dysregulation and internal stress, however some support was found for an association between emotion dysregulation and negative feelings felt due to one's partner after a stressful conversation. Implications for future research are discussed.