A Dyadic Analysis on Social Media Behaviors for Romantic Relationship Quality

Social media has become an integral context for romantic relationship maintenance, yet prior research has yielded mixed findings regarding how specific online behaviors relate to relationship quality, particularly when considering both partners within a couple. The current study extends research on relationship maintenance by examining the contribution of multiple social media behaviors across four social media platforms for relationship quality. Data come from 80 heterosexual couples ( N = 160; mean age = 31.96) who completed an online survey. Data were analyzed using multiple actor–partner interdependence models. Results revealed a positive effect for posting photos of partner and relationship and viewing partner’s social media content for women’s relationship quality and posting comments and private messaging romantic partners for both partners’ relationship quality and a negative effect from women’s posting updates of the relationship and partners’ relationship quality. Yet, the more private messages men sent to partners, the lower the relationship quality was in both partners. The proportions of variance explained ranged from 1.4 to 4.7 percent in men and from 4.9 to 9.8 percent in women. These results suggest that the effect of social media behavior on partners’ relationship quality was stronger in women than men. The results underscore that not all partner‐directed social media behaviors are uniformly beneficial and that couples and practitioners should attend to how specific online behaviors may differentially influence relationship quality.