Department of Psychology.
Department of Psychology, Bilkent University.
J Fam Psychol. 2018 Apr;32(3):355-365. doi: 10.1037/fam0000378.
Quality of marital relationships is consistently linked to personal well-being. However, almost all of the studies linking marital processes to well-being have been conducted in Western (particularly North American) countries. Growing evidence shows that perceived partner responsiveness is a central relationship process predicting well-being in Western contexts but little is known about whether this association generalizes to other countries. The present work investigated whether the predictive role of perceived partner responsiveness in well-being differs across the United States and Japan-2 contexts with contrasting views on how the self is conceptualized in relation to the social group. A large life span sample of married or long-term cohabiting adults (n = 3,079, age range = 33-83 in the United States and n = 861, age range = 30-79 in Japan) completed measures of perceived partner responsiveness, hedonic and eudaimonic well-being, and demographic (age, gender, education) and personality (extraversion and neuroticism) covariates known to predict well-being. Perceived partner responsiveness positively predicted hedonic and eudaimonic well-being both in the U.S. and in Japan. However, perceived partner responsiveness more strongly predicted both types of well-being in the United States as compared with Japan. The difference in slopes across the 2 countries was greater for eudaimonic as compared with hedonic well-being. The interaction between perceived partner responsiveness and country held even after controlling for demographic factors and personality traits. By showing that the role of perceived partner responsiveness in well-being may be influenced by cultural context, our findings contribute to achieving a more nuanced picture of the role of relationships in personal well-being. (PsycINFO Database Record
婚姻关系的质量与个人幸福感密切相关。然而，将婚姻过程与幸福感联系起来的研究几乎都在西方（尤其是北美）国家进行。越来越多的证据表明，感知到的伴侣反应能力是预测幸福感的核心关系过程，但对于这种关联是否适用于其他国家，人们知之甚少。本研究调查了在对自我与社会群体的关系有不同看法的美国和日本这两种文化背景下，感知到的伴侣反应能力对幸福感的预测作用是否存在差异。一个由已婚或长期同居的成年参与者组成的大型跨文化样本（美国 n = 3079，年龄范围 33-83；日本 n = 861，年龄范围 30-79）完成了感知到的伴侣反应能力、享乐和幸福、人口统计学（年龄、性别、教育）和人格（外向和神经质）预测幸福感的协变量的测量。感知到的伴侣反应能力对美国和日本的享乐和幸福都有积极的预测作用。然而，与日本相比，感知到的伴侣反应能力在美国对两种幸福感的预测作用更强。在两国之间，幸福感的斜率差异大于享乐幸福感。即使在控制了人口统计学因素和人格特质后，感知到的伴侣反应能力与国家之间的相互作用仍然存在。通过表明感知到的伴侣反应能力在幸福感中的作用可能受到文化背景的影响，我们的研究结果有助于更细致地了解关系在个人幸福感中的作用。
