Research investigating social anxiety and the impacts on romantic relationships remains scarce. An online questionnaire examining romantic relationship status, social anxiety and depression symptomology, relationship satisfaction, and several relationship processes was completed by 444 adults. Individuals with higher social anxiety were less likely to be in romantic relationships. For the 188 adults in our sample in current relationships, relationship satisfaction was not influenced by social anxiety when controlling for depression. Although it was proposed that self-disclosure, social support, trust, and conflict initiation might influence romantic relationship satisfaction, none of these mechanisms interacted with social anxiety to explain additional variance in relationship satisfaction. These findings indicate that depression symptomology may be a treatment target for socially anxious individuals wishing to improve romantic relationship satisfaction.

This study investigated the role of perception of the partner's investment (PPI) as a mediator of the relation between attachment and relationship satisfaction. The participants in the study were 1088 Brazilians who were involved in a committed monogamous romantic relationship. Relations between study variables were tested using structural equations. The results showed that PPI fully mediated the relation between attachment-related anxiety and avoidance and relationship satisfaction. Attachment factors that were mediated by PPI explained 80.7% of the variance of relationship satisfaction. The results revealed that higher levels of attachment-related avoidance and anxiety were associated with a lower PPI and consequently lower relationship satisfaction. Therapeutic interventions for couples may reduce perceptual bias, mainly when attachment levels of the dyad are known.

While some people with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) are unable to live independent lives, others can, and they often develop romantic relationships. Couplings where one partner has ASD and the other does not (ASD-neurotypical [NT] relationships) were the focus of this mixed-methods study. Relationship satisfaction was lower among NT participants than those with ASD. Caregiver burden was comparatively high and negatively related to relationship satisfaction. Key themes identified in the qualitative analysis include caregiver burden, loneliness, and self-care within ASD-NT relationships. These findings have clinical implications for helping professionals and people engaged in ASD-NT relationships, and highlight the need for support to assist these couplings maintain satisfying relationships.

Intimate relationships are an integral part of our lives, but the rate of relationship breakups is high. We explored the role of the investment model and the traits that influence investments on relationship satisfaction among 146 volunteers (age M = 28.76 years, SD = 10.23). Relationship satisfaction was predicted by investments, which in turn were predicted by attachment, personality and love style. Clinicians working with individuals or couples with relationship issues may benefit from knowing how invested they are in the relationship and their love style. Insight into imbalances in these constructs between partners may be used to facilitate relationship satisfaction.

This article presents the development of an instrument measuring relationship satisfaction, based on the theory that separates ‘relationship quality’ from ‘satisfaction’ concerning the semantic meaning of the concepts, and to evaluate psychometric properties of the new measure. Two studies were conducted in order to investigate the psychometric properties of the new scale, with 372 and 1,185 participants taking part in Study 1 and Study 2 respectively. Results revealed that the new scale has two-factor structure, adequate internal consistency reliability, and convergent, discriminant and known-groups validity.

This study tested the hypothesis that relationship efficacy beliefs mediate the well-documented association between attachment style and relationship satisfaction in a sample of emerging adult women in dating relationships. Further, it explored whether efficacy beliefs vary as a function of romantic experience. Participants (N = 216, Mage = 19.2 years) completed measures of attachment style, efficacy beliefs (mutuality, differentiation, emotional control, and social), and relationship satisfaction. Mutuality beliefs mediated the association between attachment avoidance and anxiety and satisfaction; however, other patterns of mediation were also found. Social, but not relationship, efficacy beliefs differed as a function of number of previous romantic relationships. Results suggest that insecurely attached individuals experience lower relationship satisfaction, in part because they hold less efficacious beliefs about their ability to engage in caregiving and careseeking behaviours. Future longitudinal research might examine how newly forming attachment representations and relationship-relevant efficacy beliefs shape each other.

We propose a transactional model of romantic sensory interactions, according to which male and female intimates adapt to the specific context of their romantic relationships by adopting different sensory domains of interactions with their partners. To test this model, we measured romantic couples’ orientations toward using sensory modalities of romantic relating, and the importance of these modalities (N = 137 couples). Although not all hypotheses were supported, the findings suggest that men's relationship satisfaction, passionate love, and liking were driven by a stronger orientation toward touch, whereas women's relationship satisfaction, passionate love, liking, and commitment were predicted by a stronger preference for hearing. Higher differential valuing of touch and bodily sensations predicted higher passionate love for both men and women, suggesting that these sensory modalities have similar functions for both genders — to maintain sexual desire and passionate love for the partner. These findings underscore the importance of romantic couples’ differential sensory orientations in maintaining satisfying relationships.

Multilevel meta-analytic techniques were used to examine the overall relationship between self-reported gender-role dimensions (psychological femininity and psychological masculinity) and self-reported relationship satisfaction. Twenty-six studies (43 effect sizes) were included in the femininity-relationship satisfaction meta-analysis, and 26 studies (43 effect sizes) were included in the masculinity-relationship satisfaction meta-analysis. Femininity revealed a stronger association with relationship satisfaction than masculinity: there was a medium relationship (r = .28) between femininity and relationship satisfaction and a small relationship (r = .13) between masculinity and relationship satisfaction. Sex/gender was not a moderator in either meta-analysis. Publication biases were not detected. Implications and recommendations are discussed.

In this study, we examined married individuals’ relationship satisfaction in relation to their emotional dependency and dysfunctional relationship beliefs. Our participants consisted of 203 female and 181 male, a total of 384 married individuals from urban cities of Turkey. Controlling the effects of gender and length of marriage, we performed a hierarchical regression analysis. Results revealed that married Turkish individuals’ relationship satisfaction was significantly explained by their emotional dependency (sr2 = .300, p < .001), and perceptions of interpersonal rejection (sr2 = .075, p < .001) and unrealistic relationship expectations (sr2 = .028, p < .001). However, interpersonal misperception did not make a significant contribution to the participants’ relationship satisfaction (p > .05). When compared to perceptions of interpersonal rejection and unrealistic relationship expectations, emotional dependency had the largest role in explaining participants’ satisfaction with their marriages. We discuss the results in light of current literature as well as cultural relevance. We also provide implications for future research and mental health practices.

Experimental research focusing on consensually non-monogamous relationships is lacking. This study examined perceptions of relationship satisfaction of participants (N = 321) randomly assigned to conditions in which they were presented with either a passage depicting a monogamous, open, or polyamorous couple. Results demonstrated that there was a significant difference between the groups exposed to the various relationship configurations in terms of the perceptions of the hypothetical couples’ relationship satisfaction, F(2,318) = 3.12, p = .045. Specifically, the monogamous couple was rated as having higher relationship satisfaction than the open couple. Such a study has implications for garnering a better understanding of the preconceived notions we hold about the lifestyles of others. As this area warrants further investigation, exploration is still ongoing.

Assessment and feedback of relationship strengths and challenges is a widely used brief approach to couple relationship education (CRE). It can be fully automated through the internet, with couples self-interpreting the feedback. This study assessed whether therapist guidance of couples to interpret the report and develop relationship goals enhanced the benefits of the feedback. Thirty-nine couples seeking CRE were randomly assigned to either self-interpretation of an internet-based relationship assessment report (RELATE), or therapist-guided interpretation of the same report (RELATE+). Participants were assessed on relationship satisfaction and psychological distress pre- and post-CRE, and at 6-month follow-up. RELATE and RELATE+ were not reliably different in outcome. Couples in both conditions sustained high relationship satisfaction and showed an overall decline in psychological distress. However, consumer satisfaction was substantially higher for the RELATE+ condition than the RELATE condition.

The aims of this research were to develop and validate a Brief Attachment Adjective Checklist (BAAC) to represent the four category model of attachment, compare it with a current measure of attachment, and use both to predict relationship satisfaction. A 32-item operationalisation of a hypothesised four-category model was analysed using a principal component analysis. Results of Study 1 (n = 174) indicated the items of the four-category model reflected good factor structure. Comparison with the four-paragraph Relationship Questionnaire (RQ) showed low correlation between the two operationalisations, suggesting that they were measuring different aspects of attachment. Analyses showed that the BAAC was a weak but better predictor of relationship satisfaction than the RQ. A confirmatory factor analysis in Study 2 (n = 131) refined the structure of the BAAC. The pattern of correlations showing relative independence of the BAAC and the RQ in Study 1 was also shown in Study 2. The frequency of respondents in dominant attachment categories of the RQ was consistent with previous research but the frequency of respondents in dominant attachment categories differed for RQ compared with the BAAC. The replication of the prediction of relationship satisfaction in Study 2 showed that both measures were weak predictors of relationship satisfaction but the BAAC was a better predictor than the RQ.