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Within-Couple Associations Between Communication and Relationship Satisfaction Over Time.
Matthew D Johnson1, Justin A Lavner2, Marcus Mund3
1University of Alberta, Edmonton, Canada.
Personality & Social Psychology Bulletin
|May 24, 2021
Summary
For couples, less negative communication typically means higher relationship satisfaction. While some lagged effects exist, negative communication mainly occurs concurrently with satisfaction, not predicting future changes.
Area of Science:
- Relationship science
- Social psychology
- Family studies
Background:
- Relationship quality is linked to communication patterns.
- Most research focuses on between-person effects, not within-person dynamics.
- Theorized within-person links suggest communication changes predict satisfaction changes.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate within-person associations between communication and relationship satisfaction.
- To examine if negative and positive communication predict future satisfaction at the individual level.
- To differentiate between concurrent and lagged effects in couples.
Main Methods:
- Three longitudinal studies were conducted.
- Within-couple associations between communication and satisfaction were analyzed.
- Lagged and concurrent effects were examined.
Main Results:
- Some lagged effects were found between negative communication and satisfaction.
- The strongest finding was a concurrent association: less negative communication correlated with higher satisfaction.
- Positive communication showed minimal within-person association with relationship satisfaction.
Conclusions:
- Within-person changes in negative communication primarily covary with relationship satisfaction.
- Negative communication does not strongly predict future relationship satisfaction at the within-person level.
- Focusing on concurrent negative communication may be key to understanding relationship satisfaction fluctuations.
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