Scholz Urte, Stadler Gertraud, Berli Corina, Lüscher Janina, Knoll Nina
Applied Social and Health Psychology, Department of Psychology, University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland.
University Research Priority Program "Dynamics of Healthy Aging," University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland.
Front Psychol. 2021 Jan 13;11:613546. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2020.613546. eCollection 2020.
Positive and negative forms of social control are commonly used to regulate another person's health-related behaviors, especially in couples. Social control efforts have been shown to result in desirable, but also undesirable effects on different outcomes. Little is known for which outcomes, when, and under which contextual conditions these different effects unfold in people's everyday lives. Using the dual-effects model of health-related social control, we predicted that same-day and previous-day positive social control would result in desirable effects on target behavior, and same-day positive control on affect. Same-day and previous-day negative control was assumed to result in undesirable effects on reactant responses (i.e., doing the opposite of what the partner wanted and hiding the unhealthy behavior), and same-day negative control on affect. Further, we explored whether it makes a difference if one or both partners intend to change their health behavior. Three daily diary studies addressed these questions for smoking (Studies 1 and 2), and physical activity (Study 3). Receiving more positive control related to more desirable target behavior, and feeling better; more negative control was associated with more reactant responses and feeling worse. Social control unfolded its effects within 1 day, but hardly across days, indicating that control and its reactions to it are fast-acting processes in daily life. The pattern of results were the same for couples with one and both partners intending to change their behavior. Further, results replicated when using partner-reported provided control. Based on these results, social control cannot be unanimously recommended as a behavior change strategy in couples. Future studies should follow up on dyadic and temporal dynamics of social control in couples' everyday lives in different contexts.
社会控制的正负形式通常用于规范他人与健康相关的行为，尤其是在夫妻关系中。研究表明，社会控制努力会对不同结果产生既有益又有害的影响。对于这些不同影响在人们日常生活中的哪些结果、何时以及在何种背景条件下出现，我们知之甚少。利用与健康相关的社会控制双效应模型，我们预测当日和前一日的积极社会控制会对目标行为产生有益影响，当日的积极控制会对情感产生有益影响。当日和前一日的消极控制被认为会对反抗反应（即做出与伴侣期望相反的行为并隐藏不健康行为）产生不良影响，当日的消极控制会对情感产生不良影响。此外，我们还探讨了一方或双方伴侣打算改变健康行为是否会产生差异。三项每日日记研究针对吸烟（研究1和2）以及体育活动（研究3）解决了这些问题。接受更多积极控制与更理想的目标行为以及感觉更好相关；更多消极控制与更多反抗反应以及感觉更糟相关。社会控制在1天内发挥作用，但几乎不会跨天，这表明控制及其反应在日常生活中是快速起效的过程。对于一方和双方伴侣都打算改变行为的夫妻，结果模式是相同的。此外，当使用伴侣报告的控制时，结果得到了重复。基于这些结果，不能一致推荐社会控制作为夫妻行为改变的策略。未来的研究应该跟进不同背景下夫妻日常生活中社会控制的二元和时间动态。
