TY - JOUR
T1 - Kissing in marital and cohabiting relationships
T2 - Effects on blood lipids, stress, and relationship satisfaction
AU - Floyd, Kory
AU - Boren, Justin P.
AU - Hannawa, Annegret F.
AU - Hesse, Colin
AU - McEwan, Breanna
AU - Veksler, Alice E.
N1 - Funding Information:
Kory Floyd is Professor of human communication at Arizona State University, where the remaining authors are doctoral students. Order of authorship for all junior authors was determined alphabetically. This research was supported by grant R03 MH075757-01A1 to the senior author from the National Institute of Mental Health. The authors are grateful for the technical advice of Jason Short, MD; Harvey Wiener, DO; and Anne Vogel, RN. Correspondence to: Kory Floyd, Hugh Downs School of Human Communication, Arizona State University, PO Box 871205, Tempe AZ 85287-1205, USA. E-mail: kory@asu.edu
PY - 2009/4
Y1 - 2009/4
N2 - Affection exchange theory and previous research suggest that affectionate behavior has stress-ameliorating effects. On this basis, we hypothesized that increasing affectionate behavior would effect improvements in physical and psychological conditions known to be exacerbated by stress. This study tested this proposition by examining the effects of increased romantic kissing on blood lipids, perceived stress, depression, and relationship satisfaction. Fifty-two healthy adults who were in marital or cohabiting romantic relationships provided self-report data for psychological outcomes and blood samples for hematological tests, and were then randomly assigned to experimental and control groups for a 6-week trial. Those in the experimental group were instructed to increase the frequency of romantic kissing in their relationships; those in the control group received no such instructions. After 6 weeks, psychological and hematological tests were repeated. Relative to the control group, the experimental group experienced improvements in perceived stress, relationship satisfaction, and total serum cholesterol.
AB - Affection exchange theory and previous research suggest that affectionate behavior has stress-ameliorating effects. On this basis, we hypothesized that increasing affectionate behavior would effect improvements in physical and psychological conditions known to be exacerbated by stress. This study tested this proposition by examining the effects of increased romantic kissing on blood lipids, perceived stress, depression, and relationship satisfaction. Fifty-two healthy adults who were in marital or cohabiting romantic relationships provided self-report data for psychological outcomes and blood samples for hematological tests, and were then randomly assigned to experimental and control groups for a 6-week trial. Those in the experimental group were instructed to increase the frequency of romantic kissing in their relationships; those in the control group received no such instructions. After 6 weeks, psychological and hematological tests were repeated. Relative to the control group, the experimental group experienced improvements in perceived stress, relationship satisfaction, and total serum cholesterol.
KW - Affection
KW - Affection exchange theory
KW - Kissing
KW - Lipids
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U2 - 10.1080/10570310902856071
DO - 10.1080/10570310902856071
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:70449591719
SN - 1057-0314
VL - 73
SP - 113
EP - 133
JO - Western Journal of Communication
JF - Western Journal of Communication
IS - 2
ER -