ABSTRACT
The theory of resilience and relational load (TRRL) articulates how actively maintaining one’s relationships helps manage stress and fosters resilience and potential thriving. It also allows partners and family members to feel more communally oriented or unified with each other against their stress and life’s challenges, which further encourages them to re-invest in their relationships. Ongoing relationship maintenance and communal orientation facilitate more security-based stress appraisals and communication patterns, which build resilience, promote positive health, and prevent relational load. Relational load is the“wear and tear” that chronic stress and conflict have on emotional, psychological, relational, and cognitive resources in the relationship. In Chapter 26, authors Tamara D. Afifi, Chantel Haughton, and Allison Mazur outline the intellectual tradition of the TRRL, set forth some of its primary assumptions, provide examples of how it has been tested so far, and identify future directions.
