Affection Deprivation Is Associated With Physical Pain and Poor Sleep Quality

Abstract

Social bonds are necessary for human survival and affectionate communication is paramount for their formation and maintenance. Consequently, affection deprivation—the condition of receiving less affectionate communication than desired—is associated with social pain, and contemporary research indicates that social pain has substantial neurological overlap with physical pain. Thus, it was proposed that affection deprivation would be associated with the sensation of physical pain as well as with poor-quality sleep. Three studies involving a total of 1,368 adults from nearly all U.S. states and several foreign countries revealed significant associations between affection deprivation, physical pain, and multiple facets of disturbed sleep.

Keywords:

• Affection
• Affection Exchange Theory
• Pain
• Sleep

Acknowledgment

The assistance of Dr. Perry Pauley is gratefully acknowledged.

Notes

1. This observation raises the possibility that affection deprivation may not be sufficiently distinct, conceptually or empirically, from these related states to qualify as a separate construct. Of these related states, loneliness perhaps shares the greatest conceptual space with affection deprivation, considering the focus of both constructs on a deficit in social connection. However, Floyd and Hesse (in press) recently demonstrated in a series of studies that affection deprivation and loneliness are both conceptually and empirically distinct, allowing their use as separate constructs.