Concurrent and longitudinal dyadic polynomial regression analyses of Big Five traits and relationship satisfaction: Does similarity matter?

The effects of subjective family status and subjective school status on depression and suicidal ideation among adolescents: the role of anxiety and psychological resilience

Background

Depression and suicidal tendencies are notably prevalent among adolescents, yet few studies have revealed the impact of social status on them. This study aimed to explore the mediating and moderating effects of anxiety and psychological resilience on family status, school status, depression, and suicidal ideation.

Methods

A total of 1,190 secondary school students aged 13 to 17 years (mean age: 13.57 ± 2.02 years) were evaluated depression, anxiety, and suicidal ideation using the PHQ-8 and GAD-7 questionnaires. Subjective family and school status were also assessed. Data analysis was conducted using Mplus, SPSS's Process, and the RSA 3.0 plugin.

Results

Subjective family/school status, anxiety, psychological resilience, depression, and suicidal ideation were significantly correlated. Anxiety played a partial mediating role in the influence of subjective family status and subjective school on depression and suicidal ideation, and psychological resilience moderated the impact of anxiety on adolescent depression and suicidal ideation (βdepression = -0.05, p < 0.01; βsuicidal ideation = -0.06, p < 0.05).

Conclusions

Subjective family status and school status played important roles in depression and suicidal ideation in adolescents, and anxiety and psychological resilience played mediating and moderating roles.

The dark triad traits and relationship satisfaction: Dyadic response surface analysis

OBJECTIVE

The current study investigated actor and partner effects and the effects of (dis)similarity in the dark triad traits on self-reported relationship satisfaction of both members of romantic couples. We examined these effects on actual similarity, similarity of perception, and men's and women's perceived similarity.

METHODS

On the sample of 205 heterosexual romantic couples, we administered questionnaires for measuring self-reported and partner-reported psychopathy, Machiavellianism, and narcissism, as well as self-reported relationship satisfaction. For analyzing data, we used dyadic response surface analysis.

RESULTS

The results corroborated our hypotheses that the dark triad traits exerted mainly negative actor and partner effects on both partners' relationship satisfaction. The effects of (dis)similarity were obtained for psychopathy and narcissism. Dissimilarity in psychopathy was related to lower men's relationship satisfaction. Dissimilarity in narcissism was related to lower, whereas similarity in this trait to higher relationship satisfaction of both partners. Generally, our findings were similar across methods and sources of assessment.

CONCLUSION

The results suggest that the DT traits of both members of a romantic couple matter for judgments of their relationship satisfaction and that along with actor and partner effects, the effects of (dis)similarity in psychopathy and narcissism also contribute to their relationship satisfaction.

Trait and facet personality similarity and relationship and life satisfaction in romantic couples

Previous research has shown that personality similarity plays a negligible role in explaining the life and relationship satisfaction of couples. However, similarity in more proximally measured personality (i.e., facets) might explain additional variance in partners' well-being. The current study examined if in a sample of 1294 female-male romantic couples individual and partner personality traits and facets were associated with life and relationship satisfaction in expected ways. Similarity in personality traits and facets was not robustly associated with either life or relationship satisfaction of partners. The results are discussed in the context of the predictive validity of personality facets.

Individual Creativity in Digital Transformation Enterprises: Knowledge and Ability, Which Is More Important?

Digital technological innovation is reshaping the pattern of industrial development. Due to the shortage of digital talents and the frequent mobility of these people, the competition for talents will be very fierce for organizations to realize digital transformation. The digitization transformation of China’s service industry is far ahead of that of industry and agriculture. It is of great significance to study the organizational management and talent management of service enterprises to reduce the negative impact of insufficient talent reserve and meet the needs of digital development. Based on 378 valid questionnaires from China’s service industry, this paper applied polynomial regression and a response surface model to analyze the impact of two kinds of person-environment fit on work engagement and individual creativity. The results show that: (1) under the combination of high morality and high talent, work engagement and individual creativity are the highest; (2) individual creativity is stronger under the condition of high morality and low talent than under low morality and high talent; and (3) work engagement mediates the influence of morality and talent on individual creativity. The research reveals the internal mechanism by which morality and talent cooperatively promote individual creativity, which provides theoretical guidance for management practice of service firms to improve individual creativity in the process of digital transformation.

Forgiveness and Gratitude: Links Between Couples' Mindfulness and Sexual and Relational Satisfaction in New Cisgender Heterosexual Marriages

The association of mindfulness with couples' relational and sexual satisfaction may be mediated by forgiveness and gratitude. Although forgiveness and gratitude have individually been shown to play a role in couples' relational and sexual satisfaction, we use an integrated model. This study included 1,360 couples recruited through a nationwide two-stage cluster stratification. Using an actor-partner interdependence model, we found significant indirect effects (β = 0.01, 0.08, p < .01), indicating that forgiveness and gratitude mediated many of the associations between couples' mindfulness and their sexual and relational satisfaction. This may provide useful information for clinicians and therapists when addressing marital issues.

Parent-adolescent congruence in phubbing and adolescents' depressive symptoms: A moderated polynomial regression with response surface analyses

BACKGROUND

With the widespread of smartphones, there is an increased interest in exploring the influences of phubbing in modern society. However, little research has examined the impact of parent phubbing (Pphubbing) or adolescent phubbing (Aphubbing) on adolescent development. This conceptual and empirical work aims to explore the unique and joint impacts of Pphubbing and Aphubbing on adolescents' depressive symptoms.

METHOD

Participants were 3322 students from 64 classes of a senior high school. The data were analyzed with polynomial regressions and response surface analyses.

RESULTS

The results showed that Pphubbing was positively related to Aphubbing. Pphubbing and Aphubbing were both positively associated with adolescents' depressive symptoms. In addition, when Pphubbing and Aphubbing were in congruence, adolescents' depressive symptoms would increase as the former two increased. Moreover, adolescents' depressive symptoms would decrease as the discrepancy between parent and adolescent increased. Meanwhile, attachment avoidance moderated the congruence and incongruence effects of parent-adolescent phubbing on adolescents' depressive symptoms.

LIMITATIONS

This study used cross-sectional data, which cannot infer causality.

CONCLUSION

The effect between parent-adolescent congruence in phubbing and adolescents' depressive symptoms is significant, and it is moderated by attachment avoidance.

Changes in prenatal testosterone and sexual desire in expectant couples

During the transition to parenthood (TTP), both women and men report declines in sexual desire, which are thought to reflect an evolutionarily adaptive focus on parenting over mating. New parents also show changes in testosterone, a steroid hormone implicated in both parenting and mating, suggesting that changes in sexual desire may be associated with changes in testosterone. To test these associations, we followed a sample of heterosexual couples expecting their first child across the prenatal period. We examined prenatal changes in testosterone and two forms of sexual desire (solitary, dyadic). Expectant mothers showed prenatal increases in testosterone, and women's higher testosterone was associated with lower dyadic desire. Expectant fathers showed prenatal decreases in testosterone, and declines in men's testosterone were associated with lower dyadic desire. Testosterone was unrelated to men's or women's solitary desire. Our findings provide support for the idea that prenatal changes in testosterone contribute to an evolutionarily adaptive focus on parenting over mating during the TTP.

Are Couples More Satisfied When They Match in Sexual Desire? New Insights From Response Surface Analyses

While sexual frequency and satisfaction are strong contributors to the quality and longevity of romantic relationships and overall well-being, mismatches in sexual desire between partners are common and have been linked with poorer satisfaction. Previous findings linking mismatches in desire with poorer relationship and sexual outcomes have typically been derived using difference scores, an approach that does not account for partners’ overall levels of desire. In a sample of 366 couples, we investigated whether partners who match in desire are more satisfied than desire-discrepant couples. Results of dyadic response surface analyses provided no support for a unique matching effect. Higher desire rather than matching in desire between partners predicted relationship and sexual satisfaction. These findings shed new light on whether the correspondence between partners’ levels of sexual desire is associated with satisfaction and suggest the need to focus on sustaining desire and successfully navigating differences rather than promoting matching in desire.

Assessing the Big Five personality traits using real-life static facial images

There is ample evidence that morphological and social cues in a human face provide signals of human personality and behaviour. Previous studies have discovered associations between the features of artificial composite facial images and attributions of personality traits by human experts. We present new findings demonstrating the statistically significant prediction of a wider set of personality features (all the Big Five personality traits) for both men and women using real-life static facial images. Volunteer participants (N = 12,447) provided their face photographs (31,367 images) and completed a self-report measure of the Big Five traits. We trained a cascade of artificial neural networks (ANNs) on a large labelled dataset to predict self-reported Big Five scores. The highest correlations between observed and predicted personality scores were found for conscientiousness (0.360 for men and 0.335 for women) and the mean effect size was 0.243, exceeding the results obtained in prior studies using 'selfies'. The findings strongly support the possibility of predicting multidimensional personality profiles from static facial images using ANNs trained on large labelled datasets. Future research could investigate the relative contribution of morphological features of the face and other characteristics of facial images to predicting personality.

The Distinct Effects of Empathic Accuracy for a Romantic Partner's Appeasement and Dominance Emotions

When is accurately reading other people's emotions costly and when is it beneficial? We aimed to identify whether the association between empathic accuracy and both relationship quality and motivation to change varies depending on the type of emotion being detected: appeasement (e.g., embarrassment) or dominance (e.g., anger). Romantic partners (couples: N = 111; individuals: N = 222) discussed a characteristic they wanted their partner to change and rated their own emotions and perceptions of their partner's emotions. Relationship quality was self-reported and objectively coded. Using multilevel response-surface analysis, we tested preregistered hypotheses about whether empathic accuracy for appeasement and dominance emotions was differentially associated with relationship quality and motivation to change. For appeasement emotions, empathic accuracy predicted higher relationship quality. For dominance emotions, higher intensity of felt emotions-not empathic accuracy-predicted lower relationship quality. Empathic accuracy did not predict the motivation to change. These results suggest that the benefits of empathic accuracy can depend on the emotion type.

Big Five personality domains and relationship satisfaction: Direct effects and correlated change over time

OBJECTIVE

The Big Five Model (BFM) of personality domains is significantly related to romantic relationship outcomes, particularly marital satisfaction. Few studies to date, however, have examined the BFM domains and relationship outcomes longitudinally.

METHOD

We used latent growth curve modeling to estimate the initial levels (intercept) and the rate of change (slope) in the BFM domains and marital satisfaction and determine if change in one construct was associated with change in the other. All available data were retained from participants who remained married to the same individual, as well as early waves for participants who divorced or were widowed, in the Midlife in the United States study (N = 1,965). We expected negative associations between (a) intercepts of Neuroticism and relationship satisfaction and (b) the intercept/slope of Neuroticism with change in marital satisfaction. The other BFM domains were expected to have positive effects on change in satisfaction.

RESULTS

The results suggested that change over time in Neuroticism and Conscientiousness is detrimental to satisfaction, while initial levels of Conscientiousness may predict declining marital satisfaction.

CONCLUSIONS

Changes in Neuroticism accompany parallel changes in relationship satisfaction in a large sample of married U.S. adults, suggesting an ongoing bidirectional influence between these constructs in enduring marriages.

The Relationship between Maternal Overprotection, Adolescent Internalizing and Externalizing Problems, and Psychological Need Frustration: A Multi-Informant Study Using Response Surface Analysis

Parents and adolescents may hold discrepant views about parents' behaviors, which may be related to adolescent maladjustment. The goal of the present investigation was to examine associations between overprotective parenting and adolescents' internalizing and externalizing problems and the frustration of their psychological needs (for autonomy, relatedness and competence), thereby considering both congruence and incongruence in adolescents' and mothers' reports of overprotective parenting. Our sample consisted of 402 mother-adolescent dyads (M adolescent age = 16.8 years, 63% female), who reported upon the mothers' overprotective parenting. In addition, adolescents filled out questionnaires assessing their internalizing and externalizing problems and psychological need frustration. Data were analyzed using polynomial regressions with response surface analysis. Results showed evidence for a linear, additive relationship between adolescents' and mothers' reports of overprotective parenting, and adolescents' internalizing and externalizing symptoms and relatedness and competence frustration. That is, higher scores in adolescents' and mothers' ratings of overprotective parenting were associated with more maladjustment and more need frustration. Moreover, results indicated that incongruence between adolescents' and mothers' reports related to more externalizing problems and more autonomy and relatedness frustration, and this was especially the case when adolescents perceived higher levels of overprotection than what was reported by mothers. These results underscore the importance of considering multiple perspectives when studying the dynamics involved in overprotective parenting.

The Relationship Between Neuroticism Fit and General Well-Being: The Mediating Effect of Psychological Resilience

BACKGROUND

The dominance complementarity theory argues that effective and continuing interpersonal relationships require complementary dominance and submission values. This theory has been widely applied to interpersonal interaction studies. Although studies have demonstrated the correlation between neurotic personality traits and general well-being (GWB) in older adults, the interpersonal interactions and psychological mechanisms underlying this effect remain unclear.

AIM

Using this theory, we explored the effect of the neuroticism fit between older adults and primary caregivers on older adults' GWB and examined the mediating role of psychological resilience (PR).

METHODS

One hundred sixty-one dyads of older adults and primary caregivers in nursing homes completed scales that included the Eysenck Personality Questionnaire-Revised Short Scale, the 10-Item Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale, and the GWB Schedule. We performed a cross-level polynomial regression, response surface modeling and mediating effect test to analyze the data.

RESULTS

(1) Older adults' GWB was higher when the neuroticism fit between older adults and primary caregivers was incongruent rather than congruent (p < 0.01). (2) In cases of incongruence, older adults' GWB was higher only if their neuroticism was lower than that of their primary caregivers (p < 0.01). (3) In cases of congruence, older adults' GWB was higher when the neuroticism of both sides was lower (p < 0.01). (4) PR partially mediated the relationship between neuroticism incongruence and older adults' GWB (indirect effect = 0.14, p < 0.01).

CONCLUSION

The neuroticism incongruence between older adults and primary caregivers was beneficial to older adults' GWB and was partially mediated by PR.

The Role of Personality in Sexual and Reproductive Health

Strong evidence suggests that sexual behavior and reproductive success can be predicted by personality traits. Here, I review new studies that have contributed to the understanding of these associations and outline potential avenues for further research. Findings show that extraversion is the most important personality trait in sexual behavior (number of lifetime sexual partners, involvement in casual sex, marital infidelity, condom use, male and female sexual dysfunction, sexual coercion, and sexual harassment) and that neuroticism, agreeableness, and conscientiousness are also associated with these outcomes. Extraversion has emerged as the most important personality trait for fertility in men but appears relatively unimportant for fertility in women. Findings for other personality traits are somewhat mixed, probably because of variations in research design, and further prospective studies are recommended to address potential bidirectional associations. Further research is also needed in adolescent samples, in understudied topic areas (e.g., sexually transmitted infections, biomarkers of fertility), and on personality similarity between sexual partners in samples from both poor and developed nations.

Circadian preference and relationship satisfaction among three types of couples

Mate selection is part of a growing interest in the study of processes by which couples are established, consolidated and/or separated. Similarity in psychological traits has been related to the well-being of couples, but given the possible effect of temporal convergence, it is necessary to control for the relationship length and whether or not both members of the couple live together. The aim of this study was to analyse the association between Morningness/Eveningness (M/E) similarity and relationship satisfaction in young-dating-non-cohabiting, young-married-cohabiting and old-married-cohabiting couples. Participants included 357 heterosexual couples (357 women and 357 men) with a mean age of 38.42 years old (SD = 13.11; age range between 19 and 69) who completed M/E (Composite Scale of Morningness) and relationship satisfaction measures (Comprehensive Marital Satisfaction Scale). Similarity in M/E was positively related to greater relationship satisfaction in both young cohabiting and non-cohabiting couples. In women, their own M/E was related to their own relationship satisfaction, whereas the level of relationship satisfaction in men was related to their partner's M/E. This relationship was observed in young-married-cohabiting couples. M/E similarity may operate differently as a function of the relationship stage.

Machine learning meets partner matching: Predicting the future relationship quality based on personality traits

To what extent is it possible to use machine learning to predict the outcome of a relationship, based on the personality of both partners? In the present study, relationship satisfaction, conflicts, and separation (intents) of 192 partners four years after the completion of questionnaires concerning their personality traits was predicted. A 10x10-fold cross-validation was used to ensure that the results of the linear regression models are reproducible. The findings indicate that machine learning techniques can improve the prediction of relationship quality (37% of variance explained), and that the perceived relationship quality of a partner is mostly dependent on his or her own individual personality traits. Additionally, the influences of different sets of variables on predictions are shown: partner and similarity effects did not incrementally predict relationship quality beyond actor effects and general personality traits predicted relationship quality less strongly than relationship-related personality.

Having a Happy Spouse Is Associated With Lowered Risk of Mortality

Studies have shown that individuals’ choice of a life partner predicts their life outcomes, from their relationship satisfaction to their career success. The present study examined whether the reach of one’s spouse extends even further, to the ultimate life outcome: mortality. A dyadic survival analysis using a representative sample of elderly couples (N = 4,374) followed for up to 8 years showed that a 1-standard-deviation-higher level of spousal life satisfaction was associated with a 13% lower mortality risk. This effect was robust to controlling for couples’ socioeconomic situation (e.g., household income), both partners’ sociodemographic characteristics, and baseline health. Exploratory mediation analyses pointed toward partner and actor physical activity as sequential mediators. These findings suggest that life satisfaction has not only intrapersonal but also interpersonal associations with longevity and contribute to the fields of epidemiology, positive psychology, and relationship research.

Actor, partner, and similarity effects of personality on global and experienced well-being

The current study examined actor, partner, and similarity effects of personality on a variety of well-being indices, including both global and experiential measures of well-being in 2,578 heterosexual couples (N = 5,156 individuals; M age = 51.04, SD = 13.68) who completed the 2016 Wellbeing and Daily Life supplement to the Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID). Among actor effects, those for conscientiousness, agreeableness, extraversion, and neuroticism were the most robust predictors of well-being. Among partner effects, conscientiousness and neuroticism were the most robust predictors of well-being. Consistent with past research, similarity effects on well-being were generally small and not always significant. The results are discussed in the context of experiential conceptualizations of well-being and operationalizing similarity in relationship research.

Testing Similarity Effects with Dyadic Response Surface Analysis

Dyadic similarity effect hypotheses state that the (dis)similarity between dyad members (e.g. the similarity on a personality dimension) is related to a dyadic outcome variable (e.g. the relationship satisfaction of both partners). Typically, these hypotheses have been investigated by using difference scores or other profile similarity indices as predictors of the outcome variables. These approaches, however, have been vigorously criticized for their conceptual and statistical shortcomings. Here, we introduce a statistical method that is based on polynomial regression and addresses most of these shortcomings: dyadic response surface analysis. This model is tailored for similarity effect hypotheses and fully accounts for the dyadic nature of relationship data. Furthermore, we provide a tutorial with an illustrative example and reproducible R and Mplus scripts that should assist substantive researchers in precisely formulating, testing, and interpreting their dyadic similarity effect hypotheses. © 2018 European Association of Personality Psychology

Best Practices for Testing the Predictive Validity of Ideal Partner Preference-Matching

Many psychological hypotheses require testing whether the similarity between two variables predicts important outcomes. For example, the ideal standards model posits that the match between (A) a participant’s ideal partner preferences, and (B) the traits of a current/potential partner, predicts (C) evaluative outcomes (e.g., the decision to date someone, relationship satisfaction, breakup); tests of the predictive validity of ideal-matching require A × B → C analytic strategies. However, recent articles have incorrectly suggested that documenting a positive samplewide correlation between a participant’s ideals and a current partner’s traits (an A-B correlation) implies that participants pursued, selected, or desired partners with traits that matched their ideals. There are at least six alternative explanations for the emergence of a samplewide A-B correlation; A-B correlations do not provide evidence that ideals guide the selection/evaluation of specific partners. We review appropriately rigorous A × B → C tests that can aid scholars in identifying the circumstances in which ideal-matching exhibits predictive validity.

Response Surface Analysis in Personality and Social Psychology: Checklist and Clarifications for the Case of Congruence Hypotheses

Response surface analysis (RSA) enables researchers to test complex psychological effects, for example, whether the congruence of two psychological constructs is associated with higher values in an outcome variable. RSA is increasingly applied in the personality and social psychological literature, but the validity of published results has been challenged by some persistent oversimplifications and misconceptions. Here, we describe the mathematical fundamentals required to interpret RSA results, and we provide a checklist for correctly identifying congruence effects. We clarify two prominent fallacies by showing that the test of a single RSA parameter cannot indicate a congruence effect, and when there is a congruence effect, RSA cannot indicate whether a predictor mismatch in one direction (e.g., overestimation of one’s intelligence) is better or worse than a mismatch in the other direction (underestimation). We hope that this contribution will further enhance the validity and strength of empirical studies that apply this powerful approach.