Does Partner Responsiveness Predict Hedonic and Eudaimonic Well‐being? A 10‐Year Longitudinal Study

• Author: Gul Gunaydin,Emre Selcuk,David M. Almeida,Anthony D. Ong
• Published date: 01 April 2016
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/jomf.12272
• Date: 01 April 2016

E S Middle East Technical University

G G Bilkent University∗

A D. O Cornell University∗∗

D M. A The Pennsylvania State University∗∗∗

Does Partner Responsiveness Predict Hedonic

and Eudaimonic Well-being? A 10-Year

Longitudinal Study

Motivated by attachment theory and recent

conceptualizations of perceived partner respon-

siveness as a core feature of close relationships,

the authors examined change in hedonic

and eudaimonic well-being over a decade

in a sample of more than 2,000 married

adults across the United States. Longitudi-

nal analyses revealed that perceived partner

responsiveness—the extent to which individuals

believe that their partner cares for, appreciates,

and understands them—predicted increases in

eudaimonic well-being a decade later. These

results remained after controlling for ini-

tial hedonic and eudaimonic well-being, age,

Department of Psychology, Middle East Technical

University,B45 Social Sciences Building, Ankara, 06800,

Turkey (semre@metu.edu.tr).

∗Department of Psychology, Bilkent University, Ankara,

06800, Turkey.

∗∗Department of Human Development, Cornell University,

242 Martha VanRensselaer Hall, Ithaca, NY 14853.

∗∗∗Department of Human Development and Family

Studies, The Pennsylvania State University,403 BBH

Building, University Park, PA16802.

KeyWords: attachment, life span development, marital qual-

ity, marriage, relationships,well-being.

gender,extraversion, neuroticism, and perceived

responsiveness of family and friends. Affective

reactivity, measured via an 8-day diary protocol

in a subset of the sample, partially mediated

this longitudinal association. After controlling

for covariates, perceived partner responsive-

ness did not prospectively predict hedonic

well-being. These ndings are the rst to docu-

ment the long-term benets of perceived partner

responsiveness on eudaimonic well-being.

Well-being is a keyaspect of adult development,

exerting lasting inuences on physical and men-

tal health, productivity, and even longevity (see

Chida & Steptoe, 2008; Lyubomirsky, King, &

Diener, 2005; and Ryff, 2013, for qualitativeand

meta-analytic reviews). Given the importance of

well-being in adulthood, a great deal of atten-

tion has been devoted to its determinants. Social

relationships have emerged as a robust predic-

tor of well-being (Oishi, Krochik, & Akimoto,

2010; Reis, 2012), with marriage, arguably the

most important adult social relationship in vir-

tually all human cultures, being at the center

of research attention (Diener, Gohm, Suh, &

Oishi, 2000; Glenn, 1975). Although it has been

suggested that marriage is strongly linked to

well-being (Glenn & Weaver, 1981), it is still

Journal of Marriage and Family 78 (April 2016): 311–325 311

DOI:10.1111/jomf.12272