Department of Psychological Science, University of Arkansas, 216 Memorial Hall, Fayetteville, AR, 72701, USA.
Department of Psychology, Florida State University, 1107 W. Call St, Tallahassee, FL, 32306, USA.
Sci Rep. 2021 Feb 3;11(1):2965. doi: 10.1038/s41598-021-82307-z.
Although there are numerous benefits to having a satisfying romantic relationship, maintaining high levels of relationship satisfaction is difficult. Many couples experience declines in relationship satisfaction in the early years of marriage, and such declines predict not only relationship dissolution but also poor mental and physical health. Several recent studies indicate that genetic variation on the CD38 gene (CD38), at the single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) rs3796863, is associated with cognitions and behaviors related to pair bonding; we thus leveraged longitudinal data from a sample of newlywed couples (N = 139 genotyped individuals; 71 couples) to examine whether rs3796863 is associated with relationship maintenance processes and, in turn, relationship satisfaction in the early years of marriage. Replicating and extending prior research, we found that individuals with the CC genotype (vs. AC/AA) of rs3796863 reported higher levels of gratitude, trust, and forgiveness and that trust mediated the association between rs3796863 and marital satisfaction. Moreover, the benefits conferred to CC individuals lasted over the first 3 years of marriage. To our knowledge, this is the first study to examine the link between variation in CD38 rs3796863 and marital functioning over time.
尽管拥有令人满意的浪漫关系有很多好处，但维持高度的关系满意度却很困难。许多夫妻在婚姻的早期就经历了关系满意度的下降，这种下降不仅预示着关系的破裂，还预示着心理健康和身体健康状况不佳。最近的几项研究表明，CD38 基因（CD38）上的单核苷酸多态性（SNP）rs3796863 的遗传变异与与伴侣关系相关的认知和行为有关；因此，我们利用新婚夫妇样本的纵向数据（N=139 个基因分型个体；71 对夫妇）来检验 rs3796863 是否与关系维持过程有关，进而与婚姻早期的关系满意度有关。复制和扩展先前的研究，我们发现 rs3796863 的 CC 基因型（与 AC/AA 相比）个体报告了更高水平的感激、信任和宽容，而信任则介导了 rs3796863 与婚姻满意度之间的关系。此外，CC 个体的益处持续了婚姻的头 3 年。据我们所知，这是第一项研究，考察了 CD38 rs3796863 变异与婚姻功能随时间变化的关系。
