Defining the nature of the relationship between contractual and relational governance is critical for understanding how to maintain commitment and coordination between private and public ...organizations in long-term partnerships. In this study, a theoretical model explains Public-Private Partnership (PPP) project performance as the result of a mediation process. Contractual and relational governance elements operate sequentially with relational elements (relational norms and trust), playing a mediating role between contractual elements, project actors' behaviour and final performance. Based on the analysis of a survey of PPP practitioners in The Netherlands, and using Consistent Partial Least Squares Modeling, the study provides empirical support for these mediating effects. The findings are aligned with the idea that both economic incentives and hierarchical relationships formalized in contract agreements require being internalized in working practices by means of informal and socially based mechanisms. The enabling and compensating mechanisms underlying the mediation role of relational governance elements are discussed. Managers can particularly find in relational norms a leverage point for designing collaborative day-to-day practices aimed at reinforcing trust and long-term contractual obligations.
•Relational governance elements mediate the relationship between contractual governance and project performance•Contract governance enables relational norms, which in turn increase partners'contributions towards performance•There is a complementary mediation of partners' trust between relational norms and partners'contributions•Relational norms compensate long-term contractual governance design by defining day-to-day collaborative micro-practices.
Whether awaiting biopsy results, a grade on a midterm, or a decision from a journal editor, people feel distressed as they wait for uncertain news. In the present study, we investigated how people's ...perceptions of their romantic partner, specifically their partner's responsiveness to their support needs, corresponds with key aspects of the waiting experience. In a longitudinal study of 184 law students awaiting their result on the California bar exam, we examined changes in perceived responsiveness over time and associations between perceived responsiveness and expectation management strategies, health, and well-being. Results revealed temporal patterns in perceived responsiveness, with the greatest responsiveness perceived at the start and end of the wait. Perceived responsiveness was also intertwined with efforts to manage one's expectations while awaiting uncertain news and was associated with more positive emotions, better subjective coping, and greater self-reported sleep quality during the wait.
To understand the ways in which heterogeneous aspects of intimate partner violence (IPV) differentially influence partners’ emotional expression during the conflict, the present study examined the ...unique and interactive effects among (a) types of IPV (psychological and/or physical), (b) directionality of IPV (unilateral or bilateral), and (c) couples’ conversation topic (initiated by men or women) on the trajectories of emotional arousal in distressed, different-gender couples ( N = 106). Vocally encoded emotional arousal ( f₀) was measured during couples’ recorded conversations. Findings from growth-curve analyses demonstrated that the level of IPV, directionality of IPV, and conversation topic were associated with different patterns of emotional arousal. First, during the discussion of the woman’s topic, escalation was observed among recipients of violence in relationships with high levels of unilateral IPV, while their partners—that is, perpetrators of IPV—demonstrated stable, flat trajectories. Second, during men’s conversations, stable levels of arousal were predominantly observed among both partners in relationships with men’s unilateral IPV and with bilateral psychological and physical IPV. Finally, for partners who engaged in low levels of IPV, men and women both showed escalating arousal across women’s conversations; however, when discussing the man’s topic, they demonstrated different patterns, with men escalating linearly and women maintaining stable levels of arousal. These findings converge to suggest a picture in which distressed partners who either engage in or experience IPV use “all-or-nothing” approaches to emotional expression during conflict—not only escalating but also containing or controlling their emotional arousal across various contexts. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved) (Source: journal abstract)
Several decades of research have demonstrated that marital relationships have a powerful influence on physical health. However, surprisingly little is known about how marriage affects health—both in ...terms of psychological processes and biological ones. Over a 10-year period, we investigated the associations between perceived partner responsiveness—the extent to which people feel understood, cared for, and appreciated by their romantic partners—and diurnal cortisol in a large sample of married and cohabitating couples in the United States. Partner responsiveness predicted higher cortisol values at awakening and steeper (i.e., healthier) cortisol slopes at the 10-year follow-up. These associations remained strong after we controlled for demographic factors, depressive symptoms, agreeableness, and other positive and negative relationship factors. Furthermore, declines in negative affect over the 10-year period mediated the prospective association between responsiveness and cortisol slope. These findings suggest that diurnal cortisol may be a key biological pathway through which social relationships affect long-term health.
Background
Intimate partner violence (IPV) is a significant problem with several negative health outcomes. Disasters are linked to increased IPV, but little is known about reporting of and strategies ...to address IPV during the COVID-19 pandemic. This review maps the IPV reporting during the pandemic and interventions to prevent and respond to IPV in 11 Western and Southern European countries.
Methods
Government websites, news articles and pre-prints were searched using the terms ‘domestic violence’ or ‘violence’ in combination with ‘Covid’ or ‘Corona’. Embase, PubMed, Scopus and Google Scholar were searched using the terms ‘domestic violence’ and ‘partner violence’ and ‘interventions’.
Results
Six countries showed an increase in domestic violence reports (Austria, Belgium, France, Ireland, Spain and UK), two countries a drop (Italy and Portugal), two countries showed no change (The Netherlands and Switzerland) and one country did not provide comparative data (Germany). Common measures to address IPV were starting a campaign (nine countries), creating online support (seven), more funding for alternative accommodation (seven) and support (eight) and use of a code word (four).
Conclusions
IPV reports or helpline calls in Western and Southern European countries in the first weeks of COVID-19 measures increased in six countries, remained the same in two countries and showed a decrease in two countries. While this review cannot ascertain the impact of the measures taken by the countries during the pandemic and beyond, this mapping provides a foundation for future research, and an opportunity to trace the efficacy of these strategies.
This article presents a review of the published literature to date on rates, experiences, and correlates of victims’ disclosure of or help seeking for intimate partner violence to informal social ...support network members (e.g., friends, family, classmates, and coworkers). Research indicates that the majority of individuals disclose to at least one informal support and that victims’ disclosure is associated with a number of demographic (e.g., victims’ sex, age, race), intrapersonal (e.g., victims’ feelings of shame/embarrassment, perception of control over abuse), and situational (e.g., violence frequency and severity, if abuse is witnessed) factors. Following disclosure, victims experience a wide range of positive (e.g., believing the victim’s reports, validating the victim’s experiences) and negative (e.g. disbelieving, blaming the victim) social reactions, with positive reactions rated as the most common and most helpful forms of support by victims. Finally, a review of psychological correlates associated with reactions to disclosure indicates that positive social reactions are associated with more psychological health benefits and fewer negative health symptoms, whereas negative social reactions were associated with increased negative psychological health symptoms. Future research methodologies and implications for violence prevention, intervention, and policy are discussed.
Interpersonal power involves how much actors can influence partners (actor power) and how much partners can influence actors (partner power). Yet, most theories and investigations of power conflate ...the effects of actor and partner power, creating a fundamental ambiguity in the literature regarding how power shapes social behavior. We demonstrate that actor and partner power are distinct and have differential effects on social behavior. Six studies (total N = 1,787) tested whether actor and partner power independently predicted behavioral inhibition (expressive suppression) and communal behavior (prioritization of partners' needs) within close relationships, including during couples' daily life (Study 1), lab-based social interactions (Studies 1-5; 1,012 dyadic interactions), and general responses during conflict (Studies 5 and 6). Actor power was negatively associated with behavioral inhibition, indicating that actors' low power prompts self-focused inhibition to prevent negative outcomes that low power actors are unable to control. Partner power was positively associated with actors' communal behavior, indicating that high partner power prompts other-focused behavior that prioritizes partners' needs and goals. These differential effects of actor and partner power replicated in work-based relationships with bosses/managers (Study 6). Unexpectedly, partner power was negatively associated with actors' behavioral inhibition within close relationships, consistent with a desire to prevent negative outcomes for low power partners. We present a framework that integrates the approach-inhibition and agentic-communal theories of power to account for the differential effects of actor and partner power. We describe the implications of this framework for understanding the effects of power in both close and hierarchical relationships.
Bacterial vaginosis (BV) is the most common vaginal dysbiosis to affect women globally, yet an unacceptably high proportion of women experience BV recurrence within 6 months of recommended antibiotic ...therapy. The low rate of sustained cure highlights our limited understanding of the pathogenesis of BV recurrence, which has been attributed to possible persistence and re-emergence of BV-associated bacteria (BVAB) or a BV-associated biofilm following antimicrobials and/or reinfection occurring from sexual partners.There is a robust body of evidence to support the exchange of bacteria between partners during sexual activity, and while the hypothesis that women treated for BV are subsequently reinfected with BVAB following sex with an untreated sexual partner is not new, failure of past partner treatment trials has eroded confidence in this concept. If reinfection is a key driver of recurrence, current antimicrobial regimens directed to women alone are unlikely to achieve a high level of sustained cure, and the approach of partner treatment to reduce reinfection is justified. In this manuscript, we present the molecular and epidemiological evidence that underlies the hypothesis that BV is sexually transmitted, and summarise why research that continues to consider sexual partnerships is necessary. We also outline the significant barriers and challenges that we have identified while undertaking partner treatment studies, and we discuss the factors that impact on our ability to determine their effectiveness.Ultimately, the pathogenesis of BV recurrence is likely to be multifaceted and not attributable to a single mechanism in all women. If we are to achieve sustained cure for women, it is likely that combined and individualised approaches to eradicate BVAB, support an optimal vaginal microbiome, and prevent reinfection from partners will be required.
When do people express their emotions to other people and when do they choose not to do so? Emotional experience-positive or negative-often leads people to reveal their feelings to others, especially ...to close relationship partners. Although emotional expression has been incorporated into recent dyadic models of emotion regulation, little research has examined the specific interpersonal processes responsible for facilitating or inhibiting emotional expression. This article reports results from a pair of methodologically distinct studies examining the impact of perceived partner responsiveness (PPR) on emotional expression. The results of Study 1, a 2-week daily diary study, demonstrated that within-person variations in the perceived responsiveness of a close partner were associated with corresponding day-to-day variations in emotional expression to that partner. In Study 2, in the context of a stressful situation, we manipulated perceptions of a romantic partner's responsiveness and then measured emotion expression toward that partner. Higher levels of experimentally induced PPR causally led to greater expression of anxiety. Together, these studies identify PPR as an important interpersonal mechanism underlying emotional expression.
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