Types of Subjective Well-Being and Their Associations with Relationship Outcomes

Abstract

The authors examined the associations between three facets of subjective well-being (SWB;positive affect, negative affect, and life satisfaction) and relationship outcomes, employingmultilevel models to analyze data from 90 couples. It was found that as participants’ self-reportedpositive affect increased, they also reported higher perceived support from their partners, greaterrelationship satisfaction, perceived partners as being more helpful and less upsetting in supportsituations, and rated their partners as more important. As self-reported negative affect increased,participants reported lower perceived support from partners, lower relationship satisfaction, andperceived partners as less helpful and more upsetting. As self-reported life satisfaction increased,participants reported higher perceived support from partners, greater relationship satisfaction, andrated partners as more helpful and less upsetting. It was also found that participants’ greater selfreportedSWB was positively associated with their partners’ reported relationship outcomes, evenafter controlling for the partners’ own SWB. Thus, not only do those with higher SWB perceivetheir relationship as being of better quality, their partners also rate the relationship morepositively. This finding suggests that people high in SWB do not just perceive their relationshipas better, but create a better relationship for their partner as well. This finding also indicates thatit is not just happy people perceiving everything, including their relationships, as superior, butthat they have better relationships from the partner’s viewpoints.