Personal Relationships

Re‐evaluating the honing framework: Naturalistic observation of same‐ and different‐sex couples' conversations The current study tested the honing framework, which posits that people in same-, versus different-, sex couples may reduce their social networks to primarily include members perceived as supportive,...

doi.org/10.1111/pere...

Check out this article by Robbins, Spahr, and Karan (2024) that revealed that people in same-sex couples hone their social networks to close, supportive members with whom they have one-on-one, satisfying interactions.
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#personalrelationships #Academicsky

Despite widespread social/tech change, the overall pattern held, though some milestone timing and social network integration shifted (Ogolsky et al., 2025). Look in our Bio for the link to learn more! #academicsky #IARR #PersonalRelationships #RomanticRelationships

College students’ descriptions of romantic-relationship progression were analyzed in two studies a decade apart. Four consistent stages emerged: flirtationship, relationship potential, in-a-relationship, and commitment or bust.

Reflections on the actor–partner interdependence model The actor–partner interdependence model (APIM) has been widely successful and has become the default method for analyses of dyadic data in which both members of the pair have the same measurements. T...

...presentation of the model, a 1979 article by Kraemer and Jacklin. Also discussed are the topics of APIM patterns, whether the APIM is a dyadic model, and the automation of APIM analyses. #academicsky #IARR You can read the article here: doi.org/10.1111/pere...

Congratulations to Dr. David Kenny on having one of the top 10 most cited Personal Relationship articles in the past decade. The article Reflections on the actor—partner interdependence model reviews the history of the development of the APIM, focusing on the original...

Distal sibling grief: Exploring emotional affect and salience of listener behaviors in stories of sibling death Communicated Narrative Sense-Making (CNSM) theory was utilized to consider the characteristics of stories of sibling death 5 years or more after the loss and to investigate the association between sh...

The best things listeners can offer are the chance to tell the story and attentive listening behaviors. #personalrelationships #siblinggrief #IARR #academicsky
Read it here: doi.org/10.1111/pere...

Check out this article by Brock and Yoshimura (2024) from our March issue. How are stories about a sibling’s death connected to well-being? “Finding a silver lining” with positivity is uncommon; instead, siblings often make sense of the loss through emphasis on facts.

You can read the article here: doi.org/10.1111/pere...
#PersonalRelationships #gaslighting #romanticrelationships
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Klein et al. studied gaslighting holistically, asking survivors about the entire course of their relationships with the gaslighter, including recovery from it. The study remains, to the authors’ knowledge, the only empirical study on recovery from gaslighting.

It was one of the first large-scale investigations of gaslighting by psychologists since public interest in the term exploded in the 2010s. The study uniquely sampled survivors of gaslighting from diverse genders, sexualities, and ages around the world.

Congrats to Willis Klein, Sherry Li, & Suzanne Wood for their article “A qualitative analysis of gaslighting in romantic relationships” being one of PR’s 12 most-cited articles during 2024 (of those published from 2022-2024).

Longitudinal dyadic interplay between marital conflict and psychological well‐being in couples: The moderating roles of wives' employment This study examined longitudinal dyadic and within-partner associations among self-esteem, subjective happiness, and marital conflict in married couples, with a possible moderating role of wives' emp....

#couples #psychologicalwellbeing #maritalconflict
#IARR #academicsky
You can read it here: doi.org/10.1111/pere...

This study by Yu found that wives tend to be their husband’s substantial source of perceived psychological well-being than the reverse; however, the benefit of psychological well-being appears to be less for husbands of stay-at-home wives compared with husbands of employed wives.

A systematic review of relationship maintenance: Reflecting back and looking to the future Relationship maintenance processes include a wide range of activities and cognitions that romantic partners engage in to sustain or enhance their relationships. In this article, we review literature ....

They then performed a theoretically driven review of the empirical articles published over the last 20 years, critiquing the nature of the samples, methods, and privileged research questions. #PersonalRelationships
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doi.org/10.1111/pere...

The authors reviewed literature from the past two decades (2002-2021) focusing on key definitional and conceptual issues in the study of relational maintenance (activities and cognitions that romantic partners engage in to sustain or enhance their relationships).

Congrats to Brian Ogolsky and Laura Stafford for their article “A systematic review of relationship maintenance: Reflecting back and looking to the future” being one of PR’s 12 most-cited articles during 2024 (of those published from 2022-2024).

Strategies for becoming a more desirable mate: Evidence from 14 countries The current research aimed to study the strategies that people employ in order to become more desirable as mates in different cultural settings. More specifically, using a closed-ended questionnaire ...

You can read the article here: doi.org/10.1111/pere... #PersonalRelationships
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Women mainly used appearance-enhancement tactics, whereas men commonly increased their income/social status and exaggerated their wealth & abilities. The authors called for research to test the strategies’ effectiveness (e.g., correlating them with mating success).

The study, with 7,000+ respondents, identified 10 strategies people reported using to become more desirable partners. The most common ones included enhancing physical appearance, showing abilities/talents, & highlighting similarity with a prospective mate.

Congrats to Menelaos Apostolou and his large team of co-authors for their article “Strategies for becoming a more desirable mate: Evidence from 14 countries” being one of PR’s 12 most-cited articles during 2024 (of those published from 2022-2024).

Relational mobility and close relationships: A socioecological approach to explain cross‐cultural differences This article reviews how behaviors and psychological tendencies in close relationships differ between cultures, and proposes a socioecological framework to understand those differences. Our review of...

...differences, reviews how behaviors and psychological tendencies in close relationships differ between cultures and proposes a socioecological framework to understand those differences. You can read the article here: doi.org/10.1111/pere... #personalrelationships #IARR

Congratulations to Drs. Mie Kito, Masaki Yuki, and Robert Thomson on having one of the top 10 most cited Personal Relationship articles in the past decade. The article Relational mobility and close relationships: A socioecological approach to explain cross-cultural...

Chinese young adults' emotion regulation and conflict resolution response profiles, and their associations with perceived partner responsiveness and romantic relationship satisfaction Interpersonal conflicts are common in romantic relationships. How to respond and cope with conflicts impacts the romantic relationship process and outcomes. This study examined the heterogeneity of C....

Releasing and gentle profiles also perform the inhibiting type. Speak up_ silence hurts love. To read more, go to: doi.org/10.1111/pere... #PersonalRelationships #IARR

Check it out! Lu Ran Zhang and Wei-Wen Chen performed a Latent profile study of Chinese daters: those who stay loyal and use "voice" in conflicts feel the most partner responsiveness and happiest.

... in the context of sexual relationships can influence how individuals evaluate and satisfied with their relationship. Go to our website to learn more! #PersonalRelationships #IARR

New article alert! We have one of the publications from March 2025. This study emphasizes the importance of the subjective orgasm experience in same-sex relationships, showing that the way an orgasm is perceived...

...and mental health. His research focuses on social skills, relationship development and satisfaction, and such problems as depression, anxiety, loneliness, and marital distress. Join us in congratulating Dr. Segrin on this accomplishment! #PersonalRelationships #IARR

Congratulations to Dr. Chris Segrin on being one of Personal Relationships Top 10 reviewers in 2024. Dr. Segrin is a Regents Professor in the Department of Communication at the University of Arizona. He is a behavioral scientist whose specialty is interpersonal relationships...

Just between us…: The role of sharing and receiving secrets in friendship across time Secrets are prominent in close relationships. Most research has examined people's general tendencies to share secrets or single instances of secret-keeping or secret-sharing. These methods limit what....

...being told other people's secrets may take time before becoming a reliable friendship cue (Bedrov & Gable, 2024). Read it here: doi.org/10.1111/pere... #sharingsecrets #friendship #relationshipresearch
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