Cultivation or enabling? Day-to-day associations between self-efficacy and received support in couples

Theories and empirical findings identify social support and self-efficacy as important variables for behavior change. Two competing hypotheses describe the bidirectional relationship of these two constructs: The cultivation hypothesis assumes that self-efficacy facilitates social support, whereas the enabling hypothesis assumes that social support fosters self-efficacy. To shed more light on the interplay of interpersonal and intrapersonal factors in the behavior change context in daily life, the present study aims to investigate these hypotheses at the within-person level.

In total, 99 overweight heterosexual couples intending to increase their physical activity participated in this dyadic intensive longitudinal study. Both partners independently reported on their self-efficacy and their support receipt from their partner in smartphone-based end-of-day diaries across 14 days. To investigate the competing hypotheses prospective lagged multilevel models were applied.

For both partners, higher-than-average levels of self-efficacy on a given day predicted higher support receipt the next day, confirming the cultivation hypothesis. We found no effect of higher-than-average levels of support receipt on a given day on self-efficacy the next day, disconfirming the enabling hypothesis. Same-day support receipt and previous day self-efficacy were positively related to daily physical activity.

This is the first study investigating the cultivation and the enabling hypothesis on a day-to-day basis using a dyadic intensive longitudinal approach. Findings support the cultivation hypothesis at the within-person level, suggesting that self-efficacy may help to facilitate support receipt close in time. Future studies should use within-person experimental designs and ecological momentary assessments within days to increase our understanding of the temporal dynamics of the cultivation and enabling effect.