Survey reveals that cohesive relationship trajectories link to higher satisfaction and lower loneliness in dating individuals, suggesting shared cognitive appraisals foster romantic well-being.
This study examined the associations among relationship development, relational satisfaction, and loneliness. One hundred participants in a current romantic relationship and 100 participants in a recently broken-off romantic relationship completed measures of relationship development, including a newly developed self-report measure to assess relationship trajectories and a series of open-ended questions that assessed cognitive appraisals of relationship development. Participants also completed measures of relationship satisfaction and loneliness. Results indicated that reports of faster and broader relationship development trajectories and cognitive appraisals of the relationship development that indicated `weness' over separateness, glorifying the struggle with past stressors, and minimal relational disappointment were positively associated with relational satisfaction. These relationship development assessments, along with relational satisfaction, were also negatively related to loneliness.
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Flora et al. (2000) studied this question.
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