Do Romantic Relationships Promote Happiness? Relationships’ Characteristics as Predictors of Subjective Well-Being

This study aimed to investigate the predictive power of aspects of the romantic relationship on subjective well-being, beyond what is explained by sociodemographic and personality variables. Participants were 490 heterosexual adults (68.8% women), all involved in a monogamous romantic relationship. Romantic relationship variables were substantial predictors of the three components of subjective well-being, explaining 21% of the variance in life satisfaction, 19% of the variance in positive affect, and 15% of the variance in negative affect, in addition to sociodemographic variables and personality factors. Still, relationship satisfaction was one of the main predictors of subjective well-being. The results highlight the importance of romantic relationships over subjective well-being, suggesting that cultivating satisfying romantic relationships contributes to a happier life

Uma Medida de Satisfação com o Relacionamento Amoroso

This study aimed to adapt the Investment Model of Commitment Processes Scale (Escala do Nível de Satisfação com o Relacionamento Amoroso – ENSRA – Rusbult, Martz, & Agnew, 1988) to the Brazilian context. In the first study (N=269), we sought evidence of validity based on the unifactorial structure of the instrument and analyzed the properties of the items according to the item response theory. In the second study (N=1498), a revised version of the scale (ENSRA-R) was proposed, including new items with higher difficulty parameters. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses indicated a single-factor structure for both the ENSRA and ENSRA-R. As theoretically expected the ENSRA and ENSRA-R correlated positively with another instrument that assesses relationship satisfaction and with romantic love, and negatively with the intention to break-up. Both versions of the instrument provide satisfactory evidence of validity and adequate accuracy, however, the ENSRA-R was more informative, covering a larger portion of the latent trait compared to the ENSRA.Esta pesquisa teve por objetivo adaptar para o contexto brasileiro a Escala do Nível de Satisfação com o Relacionamento Amoroso (ENSRA, Rusbult, Martz, & Agnew, 1998). No primeiro estudo (N=269), buscaram-se evidências de validade baseadas na estrutura unifatorial do instrumento e analisaram-se as propriedades dos itens de acordo com a Teoria de Resposta ao Item. No segundo estudo (N=1.498), propôs-se uma versão revisada da escala (ENSRA-R), incluindo-se novos itens com parâmetros mais elevados de dificuldade. Análises fatoriais exploratórias e confirmatórias indicaram uma estrutura unifatorial também para ENSRA-R. Conforme esperado teoricamente, ENSRA e ENSRA-R correlacionaram-se positivamente com outra medida de satisfação com o relacionamento e com amor romântico, e negativamente com intenção de terminar o relacionamento. Ambas as versões do instrumento apresentam satisfatórias evidências de validade e adequados índices de precisão, contudo, a ENSRA-R mostrou-se mais informativa, cobrindo uma maior porção do traço latente, comparada à ENSRA.Esta investigación tuvo como objetivo adaptar la Escala de Satisfacción en la Pareja (ENSRA, Rusbult, Martz, & Agnew, 1988) al contexto brasileño. En el primer estudio (N=269), se buscaron evidencias de validez basadas en la estructura unifactorial del instrumento y, de acuerdo con la teoría de respuesta al ítem, se analizaron las propiedades de los ítems. En el segundo estudio (N = 1498) fue propuesta una versión revisada de la escala (ENSRA-R), que incluye nuevos ítems con parámetros de dificultad más estrictos. Los análisis factoriales exploratorios y confirmatorios también indicaron la estructura de un factor para la ENSRA-R. Como resultado esperado, ENSRA y ENSRA-R se correlacionaron positivamente con otra medida de satisfacción con la relación y con el amor romántico; y negativamente con la intención de terminar la relación. Ambas versiones del instrumento presentan evidencias de validez satisfactorias e índices de precisión adecuados. Sin embargo, la ENSRA-R se demostró más informativa, cubriendo el rasgo latente en mayor medida, en comparación con la ENSR

COVID-19 and Social Distancing: A Cross-Cultural Study of Interpersonal Distance Preferences and Touch Behaviors Before and During the Pandemic

The COVID-19 pandemic has led to the introduction of unprecedented safety measures, one of them being physical distancing recommendations. Here, we assessed whether the pandemic has led to long-term effects on two important physical distancing aspects, namely interpersonal distance preferences and interpersonal touch behaviors. We analyzed nearly 14,000 individual cases from two large, cross-cultural surveys – the first conducted 2 years prior to the pandemic and the second during a relatively stable period of a decreased infection rate in May-June 2021. Preferred interpersonal distances increased by 54% globally during the COVID-19 pandemic. This increase was observable across all types of relationships, all countries, and was more pronounced in individuals with higher self-reported vulnerability to diseases. Unexpectedly, participants reported a higher incidence of interpersonal touch behaviors during than before the pandemic. We discuss our results in the context of prosocial and self-protection motivations that potentially promote different social behaviors

Coping with global uncertainty: Perceptions of COVID-19 psychological distress, relationship quality, and dyadic coping for romantic partners across 27 countries

Article first published online: August 26, 2021Following the global outbreak of COVID-19 in March 2020, individuals report psychological distress associated with the “new normal”—social distancing, financial hardships, and increased responsibilities while working from home. Given the interpersonal nature of stress and coping responses between romantic partners, based on the systemic transactional model this study posits that perceived partner dyadic coping may be an important moderator between experiences of COVID-19 psychological distress and relationship quality. To examine these associations, self-report data from 14,020 people across 27 countries were collected during the early phases of the COVID-19 pandemic (March–July, 2020). It was hypothesized that higher symptoms of psychological distress would be reported post-COVID-19 compared to pre-COVID-19 restrictions (Hypothesis 1), reports of post-COVID-19 psychological distress would be negatively associated with relationship quality (Hypothesis 2), and perceived partner DC would moderate these associations (Hypothesis 3). While hypotheses were generally supported, results also showed interesting between-country variability. Limitations and future directions are presented

COVIDiSTRESS diverse dataset on psychological and behavioural outcomes one year into the COVID-19 pandemic

During the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, the COVIDiSTRESS Consortium launched an open-access global survey to understand and improve individuals’ experiences related to the crisis. A year later, we extended this line of research by launching a new survey to address the dynamic landscape of the pandemic. This survey was released with the goal of addressing diversity, equity, and inclusion by working with over 150 researchers across the globe who collected data in 48 languages and dialects across 137 countries. The resulting cleaned dataset described here includes 15,740 of over 20,000 responses. The dataset allows cross-cultural study of psychological wellbeing and behaviours a year into the pandemic. It includes measures of stress, resilience, vaccine attitudes, trust in government and scientists, compliance, and information acquisition and misperceptions regarding COVID-19. Open-access raw and cleaned datasets with computed scores are available. Just as our initial COVIDiSTRESS dataset has facilitated government policy decisions regarding health crises, this dataset can be used by researchers and policy makers to inform research, decisions, and policy.</jats:p