Respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA), an index of the parasympathetic nervous system, has recently gained attention as a physiological component of regulatory processes, social connectedness, and health. Within the context of romantic relationships, studies have operationalized and conceptualized RSA in disparate ways, obscuring a clear pattern of findings. This systematic review synthesizes the rapidly developing literature and clarifies the role of RSA in romantic relationships. We evaluate support for three conceptual hypotheses: (1) resting baseline RSA is associated with better quality relationships; (2) phasic RSA is reflective of changes in threat and connection during couple interactions; and (3) physiological linkage in RSA between romantic partners relates to positive or negative relationship functioning depending on the nature of the linkage (e.g., in-phase vs. antiphase). We identified 26 empirical studies that tested associations between RSA and an index of romantic relationships (i.e., relationship satisfaction). Our findings show that higher RSA is not uniformly “good” for relationships. Higher resting baseline RSA was contemporaneously associated with better quality relationships, yet higher baseline RSA was also unexpectedly associated with relationship violence. Short-term decreases in RSA were found during relationship conflict, though the opposite—phasic increases in RSA during positive romantic partner interactions—was not found due to mixed empirical support. As expected, evidence for RSA linkage was found, though the connection between linkage and relationship functioning depends on the context in which it was measured. We discuss methodological limitations and directions for future research.

中文翻译：

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浪漫关系中呼吸窦性心律失常的系统评价

呼吸性窦性心律失常 (RSA) 是副交感神经系统的一种指标，最近作为调节过程、社会联系和健康的生理组成部分受到关注。在恋爱关系的背景下，研究以不同的方式对 RSA 进行了操作和概念化，掩盖了清晰的发现模式。这篇系统综述综合了快速发展的文献并阐明了 RSA 在恋爱关系中的作用。我们评估了对三个概念假设的支持：（1）静息基线 RSA 与更好的质量关系相关；(2)阶段性RSA反映了夫妻互动过程中威胁和联系的变化；(3) RSA 中的生理联系取决于联系的性质（例如，同相与反相）与正或负关系功能相关。我们确定了 26 项实证研究，这些研究测试了 RSA 与浪漫关系指数（即关系满意度）之间的关联。我们的研究结果表明，较高的 RSA 并不总是对关系“有益”。较高的静息基线 RSA 同时与质量较好的关系相关，但较高的基线 RSA 也出乎意料地与关系暴力相关。在关系冲突期间发现了 RSA 的短期下降，但由于混合的经验支持，没有发现相反的——在积极的浪漫伴侣互动期间 RSA 的阶段性增加。正如预期的那样，发现了 RSA 关联的证据，尽管链接和关系功能之间的联系取决于测量它的上下文。我们讨论了方法论的局限性和未来研究的方向。