The way you feel about your close relationships may have an impact on your physical health, according to research conducted by the University of Auckland in New Zealand.

Both positive and negative experiences in our relationships contribute to the way our bodies function, including our daily stress, coping, and physiology, like blood pressure and heart rate reactivity.

On average, people with more positive experiences and fewer negative experiences reported lower stress, better coping, and lower systolic blood pressure reactivity, leading to better physiologic functioning in daily life.

Experiencing daily ups and downs in negative relationship experiences, like conflict, were especially predictive of outcomes like more stress, less coping, and overall higher systolic blood pressure.

The COVID-19 pandemic has created considerable strain, turbulence, and variability in people's relationships and may indirectly alter stress, coping, and physiology in daily life, all of which have important implications for physical well-being.

Researchers cautioned that other physiologic states, such as neuroendocrine or sympathetic nervous system responses, should be taken into account as outcomes of daily positive and negative relationship experiences.

This is a summary of the article, "The Good, the Bad, and the Variable: Examining Stress and Blood Pressure Responses to Close Relationships," published in Society for Personality and Social Psychology on March 27, 2023. The full text can be found here.

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Positive Relationships Can Keep You Healthy - Medscape