Personality and intimate support influences on prospective health status

This prospective research tested the theory that morbidity is influenced by personality, affect and quality of intimate social relationships. Seventy-eight community-dwelling 35-55 year-old men and women completed self-report questionnaires measuring self-esteem, neuroticism, existence and quality of intimate relationships, and retrospective illness. They also maintained a daily illness log for three months. With the effects of physical symptoms controlled in both retrospective and prospective illnesses, the study showed that being previously ill or highly neurotic and in an unsatisfactory intimate relationship significantly predicted future morbidity. These results support the theory that a salient component of psychological contributors to health/illness is the quality of intimate social relationships.