Introduction
Close Relationships and Health: Developing an Integrative Approach to Research and Theory was an Exploratory Workshop funded by a grant from the Peter Wall Institute for Advanced Studies at the University of British Columbia awarded to Principal Investigators Anita DeLongis, Department of Psychology, and Daniel Perlman, School of Social Work and Family Studies (now at the University of North Carolina at Greensborough). Additional support was provided by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada.
While there have been recent advances in knowledge and research in the area of close relationships and health, many questions remain about the processes of couple and family coping with stress and adversity, the effects of such adversity on health, and therapeutic means to aid couples and families. With this workshop, we took an in-depth examination of recent theoretical perspectives and cutting edge research on how couples cope with stress, including acute and chronic stress, stresses within and outside the family, stress caused by physical and mental illness, and how such stressors impact on the health and well-being of both the dyad and the larger social units in which they are embedded. This international workshop brought together research scientists from a range of research traditions with the goal of developing an integrative framework for understanding the role of close relationships in health.
