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. 2023 May 30:12:e81241.
doi: 10.7554/eLife.81241.

Affectionate touch and diurnal oxytocin levels: An ecological momentary assessment study

Ekaterina Schneider  1   2 , Dora Hopf  1   2 , Corina Aguilar-Raab  1   2 , Dirk Scheele  3 , Andreas B Neubauer  4   5 , Uta Sailer  6 , René Hurlemann  7 , Monika Eckstein  1   2 , Beate Ditzen  1   2
Affiliations

Affectionate touch and diurnal oxytocin levels: An ecological momentary assessment study

Ekaterina Schneider et al. Elife. .

Abstract

Background: Affectionate touch, which is vital for mental and physical health, was restricted during the Covid-19 pandemic. This study investigated the association between momentary affectionate touch and subjective well-being, as well as salivary oxytocin and cortisol in everyday life during the pandemic.

Methods: In the first step, we measured anxiety and depression symptoms, loneliness and attitudes toward social touch in a large cross-sectional online survey (N = 1050). From this sample, N = 247 participants completed ecological momentary assessments over 2 days with six daily assessments by answering smartphone-based questions on affectionate touch and momentary mental state, and providing concomitant saliva samples for cortisol and oxytocin assessment.

Results: Multilevel models showed that on a within-person level, affectionate touch was associated with decreased self-reported anxiety, general burden, stress, and increased oxytocin levels. On a between-person level, affectionate touch was associated with decreased cortisol levels and higher happiness. Moreover, individuals with a positive attitude toward social touch experiencing loneliness reported more mental health problems.

Conclusions: Our results suggest that affectionate touch is linked to higher endogenous oxytocin in times of pandemic and lockdown and might buffer stress on a subjective and hormonal level. These findings might have implications for preventing mental burden during social contact restrictions.

Funding: The study was funded by the German Research Foundation, the German Psychological Society, and German Academic Exchange Service.

Keywords: Covid-19; affectionate touch; cortisol; epidemiology; global health; human; oxytocin; well-being.

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Conflict of interest statement

ES, DH, CA, DS, AN, US, RH, ME, BD No competing interests declared

Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.. Flowchart of the recruitment process.
Figure 1 depicts the recruitment stages of both the online and the ecologically momentary assessments (EMA) study. Participants were recruited between April 1 and July 30, 2020, via online media and local newspapers. Inclusion criteria: fluency in German, minimum age of 18 y, and willingness to participate voluntarily. In total, 1483 individuals agreed to participate, of whom 1050 participants filled out the online questionnaires of interest. Out of the 472 participants who were interested in the EMA study, 247 finished the assessments.
Figure 2.
Figure 2.. Diurnal oxytocin and cortisol trajectories.
Panels (A) and (B) illustrate the daily oxytocin (pg/ml) and cortisol (ng/ml) trajectories across 2 d and all participants. Gray area indicates cortisol and oxytocin awakening response. Error bars indicate 95% confidence intervals.
Figure 2—figure supplement 1.
Figure 2—figure supplement 1.. Diurnal oxytocin levels depending on relationship status (A) and living arrangements (B).
Figure 3.
Figure 3.. Associations between occurrence of affectionate touch and psychological and hormonal state.
Panels (A) to (G) illustrate violin plots with density distributions of subjective ratings of general and Covid-19-related burden, stress, anxiety, happiness, cortisol, and oxytocin, depending on whether touch occurred or not. Each dot represents one assessment. Central dots (black) represent each mean. Black lines represent the standard deviations. * indicates statistically significant results (p<0.05). +indicates a statistical trend (p<0.1). ♠ indicates statistically significant between-person effect. ♣ indicates statistically significant within-person effect.
Figure 4.
Figure 4.. Associations between momentary affectionate touch intensity and psychological and hormonal state.
Panels (A) to (G) illustrate the results of random intercept and fixed slopes models depicting associations of momentary intensity of touch with self-reported general burden and Covid-19 related burden, stress, anxiety, happiness, cortisol, and oxytocin. Gray lines indicate the overall predicted slope, whereas the blue lines indicate the individual’s predicted slopes with their minimum and maximum predicted values as endpoints. Gray areas depict the 95% confidence band. * indicates statistically significant results (p<0.05).+indicates a statistical trend (p<0.1). ♠ indicates statistically significant between-person effect. ♣ indicates statistically significant within-person effect.
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  • doi: 10.2139/ssrn.4068369

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