How Couples Relationship Satisfaction Love and Gratitude Predict

How Couples’ Relationship Satisfaction, Love and Gratitude Predict Showing Appreciation Elizabeth V. Engsberg, Olivia N. Chapman, Hannah Hu, Jennifer L. Hughes Abstract For our project, we examined whether or not gender, relationship satisfaction, gratitude, and love would predict showing appreciation for individuals in romantic relationships. There is existing research that explores relationships between relationship satisfaction and gratitude, or between life satisfaction and gratitude, but there is a gap in understanding how or why couples showed appreciation for each other (Algoe, 2010; Kashdan, Misha, Breen, & Froh, 2009). Examining how these factors influence showing appreciation could provide valuable insight into romantic relationships. Our sample consisted of 298 participants who lived in the United States and were in a relationship. Participants took a survey administered through Survey. Monkey. One hundred and forty-seven of the participants identified as men and 150 identified as women. We hypothesized that gender, relationship satisfaction, gratitude, and love would predict individuals in romantic relationships showing appreciation for their partners. Using multiple regression, we found support for our hypothesis in that relationship satisfaction, gratitude, and love predicted showing appreciation for one’s partner with love being the strongest predictor. However, we did not find that gender predicted showing appreciation for one’s partner. Our model accounted for 59. 2% of the variance, F(4, 290) = 107. 62, p <. 001. Even though we have a large sample size and used reliable scales, the vast majority of participants were heterosexual and White. Future research could examine this topic by using same-sex couples or a more racially diverse participant pool. Literature Review Table 1 Table 2 • Gratitude for one’s partner was related to higher marital satisfaction and better adjustment among newlyweds (Schramm, 2005). Correlations for the Showing Appreciation for Partner and the Dependent Variables Summary of Regression Analysis for Predicting Showing Appreciation • Mc. Cullough (2002) noted that grateful people rated higher regarding positive emotions and life satisfaction and lower in negative emotions. • Moments of gratitude can serve as a positivity boost for a relationship; gratitude can help to increase a couple’s bond by reminding them of their feelings towards each other (Algoe 2010). • Research by Kashdan, Misha, Breen, and Froh (2009) reported that women were more likely to feel and express gratitude, as well as derive more benefit from its expression than men. • They suggest that males may see the expression of gratitude as indications of vulnerability and weakness and therefore avoid expressing it. Variable 1 2 3 4 5 Method Showing Appreciation Gender Relationship Satisfaction 1 2 3 4 5 – . 07 . 72*** B SE B β Gender . 45 . 62 . 03 Relationship Satisfaction . 32 . 11 . 22** Gratitude . 15 . 06 . 11* Love . 06 . 01 . 51*** Variable – . 02 – Gratitude . 48*** . 16*** . 47*** – Love . 76*** . 04 . 88*** . 53*** Adjusted R squared – Note. Higher score indicates greater magnitude. All analyses were two-tailed ** = p <. 01, *** = p<. 001 F for change in R squared . 59*** 107. 62*** Note. N=295 * = p <. 05, ** = p <. 01, *** = p <. 001 Participants Results • The sample consisted of 298 participants who lived in the United States and were in a relationship at the time of the study. One hundred and forty-seven of the participants identified as men and 150 identified as women. One participant did not answer the question about gender. • Using multiple regression, we found support for our hypothesis in that relationship satisfaction, gratitude, and love predicted showing appreciation for one’s partner with love being the strongest predictor. • The participants reported being with their partner for more than 15 years (35. 8%), between 10 and 15 years (24. 3%), between 7 and 10 years (16. 6%), between 2 and 5 years (10. 8%), between 5 and 7 years (9. 8%), and between 1 and 2 years (2. 7%). All of the participants reported living together and most were married (98%). • Our correlations are listed in Table 1 and our regression results are in Table 2. Our model accounted for 59. 2% of the variance, F(4, 290) = 107. 62, p < . 001. • We did not find that gender predicted showing appreciation for one’s partner. Procedure • We recruited 320 participants for our online Survey. Monkey survey using Amazon Mechanical Turk (MTurk). Participants had to live in the United States and be in a relationship in order to qualify for the study. Participants were each paid $. 50 to participate. Measures • Being appreciative. Gordon, Impett, Kogan, Oveis, and Keltner (2012) developed the Appreciation in Relationships (AIR) scale to assess appreciation. We used the 9 item appreciative subscale, which assesses the extent to which people felt appreciative of their partner (Gordon et al. , 2012). • Gratitude. The Gratitude Questionnaire-6 (GQ-6; Mc. Cullough, Emmons, & Tsang, 2002) was used to assess participants’ feelings of gratitude. Participants rated their level of agreement for each of six items using a 7 -point Likert-type scale ranging from 1 (strongly disagree) to 7 (strongly agree). • Love. We used the 45 -item Triangular Love Scale to assess the three components that define love using commitment, intimacy, and passion developed by Sternberg (1988). We used a 9 -point Likert scale ranging from 1 (not at all) to 9 (extremely). • Relationship satisfaction. We used the Relationship Assessment Scale to assess relationship satisfaction developed by Hendrick (1988) and used a 5 -point Likert scale ranging from 1 to 5 and the anchors varied to match the questions. Discussion • Our results show that relationship satisfaction, gratitude, and love all predict individuals showing appreciation for their partners in romantic relationships. The strongest predictor was love. We did not find that gender was a predictor for showing appreciation. • Our findings support previous research that found connections between marital satisfaction and gratitude, as well as research that showed that gratitude can benefit romantic relationships and how couples feel about one another. • This information can help couples who are considering ways to increase their relationship satisfaction, gratitude, and love. • One of the strengths of our study was the large sample size (N= 297). However, our sample was not diverse, as the participants were predominantly white and heterosexual. • Future studies could exclusively examine same-sex couples or could explore how an additional factor, such as anxiety, might affect how individuals show appreciation in romantic relationships.