The chapter begins with a review of the historical and current socio-political context for sexual minority and gender diverse (SMGD) individuals living in the United States, followed by relevant research on the associations between minority stress and well-being. A particular focus is devoted to presenting data collected as part of the SMGD-MN study. The chapter concludes with recommendations for future psychological research with SMGD communities living in the United States.

This introduction provides an overview of the SMGD-MN study, including information on the context to which it was developed and its theoretical underpinnings. Additionally, we provide key terminology and an overview of the chapters’ content.

This foreword discusses the uniqueness and significance of the volume and orients readers to the research that forms the basis of the book.

Relational partners are considered to be interdependent, such that their experiences are linked to one another. Based on principles of interdependence, it can be argued that partners’ experiences of stress and coping are also shared. The systemic transactional model posits that one partner’s experience of stress can affect the other partner by direct (“I’m stressed!”) or indirect (e.g., shutting down) stress expression (stress crossover). Furthermore, the ability to cope with such stressors also relies on both partner’s individual and joint coping resources. Grounded in interdependence theory, the goal of this chapter is to present an overview of how stress and coping can be understood as an interdependent construct. To highlight this, we present research on the negative associations between stress and individual and relational well-being, and the ways in which couples can cope with stress based on their shared experiences by engaging in dyadic coping. Given the robust literature on the well-established associations between stress and dyadic coping, this chapter presents recent research that extends applications of the systemic transactional model to unique populations: same-sex couples coping with minority stress and heterosexual couples coping with stress associated with the transition to parenthood.

Perhaps not surprisingly, romantic couples experience stress. Stress can originate both within the relationship, such as differing viewpoints between partners, or outside the relationship, such as learning about a poor performance review at work or having an argument with a friend. Irrespective of the origin of the stress, romantic partners are able to combat its negative effects by recognizing stress as an interdependent experience, one that is shared between partners, and engaging in positive dyadic coping. Conceptualized by Bodenmann’s systemic transactional model, positive dyadic coping is defined as supportive behaviors that help to downregulate partners’ negative experiences of stress and include providing emotional or problem-focused support. The purpose of this chapter is to present compelling evidence to conceptualize positive dyadic coping as a relationship maintenance strategy, one that helps preserve the relationship during times of distress and contributes to relationship satisfaction and longevity.