Examining the Moderating Influence of Relationship Satisfaction on Affection and Trust, Closeness, Stress, and Depression

ABSTRACT

This study sought to explore whether relationship satisfaction moderated the relationship between affection and individual health (i.e., depression and stress) and affection and relational well-being (i.e., trust and closeness). The sample (N = 631) was comprised of predominantly female non-married Southwestern college students. Relationship satisfaction did not interact with the relationship between affection and trust, affection and closeness, and affection and depression. However, relationship satisfaction moderated the relationship between affection and stress such that affection was significantly and negative related to stress only for highly satisfied relationships. Dissatisfied participants were affectionately deprived, and their frequency of affectionate behaviors varied. Implications and directions for future research are discussed.

Disclosure statement

We have no known conflict of interest to disclose.

Notes

1. Participant partner demographics included 133 females and 493 males (two partners were identified as transgender, and three participants failed to report their partner’s sex). Partners had a mean age of 24.94 years (SD = 7.85) and 144 were identified as Hispanic. In terms of race, partners were 59% white, 19% Latino/a, 16% Black/African American, 3% “other” and 1% Asian (the remaining participants reported mixed ethnicities or other ethnicities). Partner sexuality was not collected.

2. A between-subjects ANOVA was conducted with relationship status (i.e., unmarried, engaged, or married) as the independent factor, and the combined affectionate communication score, affection deprivation, trust, closeness, depression, and stress as the set of dependent variables. Only the affectionate communication score produced a significant result, F (6, 628) = 8.61, p< .001, η² = .03. Tukey B post hoc analysis showed that the unmarried sample reported engaging in significantly more affection (M= 5.85) as compared to the married sample (M= 4.43) but did not differ from the engaged sample (M= 5.58). The married and engaged sample did not significantly differ on reported affection.

3. For the first and second research questions, we used the combined affectionate communication score instead of individual scores for verbal, nonverbal, and socially supportive affectionate communication so that the results would be more comparable with previous research on the benefits of affectionate behavior and so as not to inflate alpha error unnecessarily.

4. The MANCOVA also produced significant multivariate effects for partner age and the presence of children in the household. Several multivariate interactions effects were also significant. Contact the first author for comprehensive statistical report.

5. Contact the first author for a table depicting the means and standard deviations for nonverbal affection by satisfaction x race x children (N = 628).

6. Contact the first author for a table depicting the means and standard deviations for supportive affection by satisfaction x sex (N = 628).