Too Stressed to Help? The Effects of Stress on Noticing Partner Needs and Enacting Support

Although couples’ support exchanges are especially important during times of stress, coping with stress often taxes individuals’ energy and resources and may render it more difficult for partners to provide support to one another. In a daily diary study of 121 married couples, we examined whether spouses’ chronic and daily non-marital stressors were associated with their capacity to accurately perceive their partner’s support needs and to provide support when needed. Consistent with the notion that stress may be linked to reduced perspective-taking, husbands experiencing greater chronic stress were less accurate in their assessments of their partner’s support needs across the diary days. Moreover, even when husbands did notice that their partner desired support, they were less likely to provide support if they were coping with their own stress that day. Thus, the findings highlight the multiple pathways through which stress can undermine support provision within relationships.