How Are Provided and Received Social Support Related to Relationship Satisfaction and Self-Esteem? A Comprehensive Test of Competing Hypotheses

Abstract

The amount of social support partners provide and receive in romantic relationships is important for psychological well-being. But in what sense exactly? Divergent and highly nuanced hypotheses exist in the literature. We explicitly spelled out these hypotheses, specified a statistical model for each using response surface analyses, and simultaneously tested which model had the most empirical support. We analyzed data from more than 16,000 participants and investigated how the amount of social support relates to relationship satisfaction (of participants themselves and partners) and self-esteem (of participants themselves). For participants’ own relationship satisfaction, models postulating that more provided and received social support is linked to higher satisfaction had the most empirical support. For partners’ relationship satisfaction and participants’ self-esteem, models that also take partners’ (dis)-similarity in supportiveness into account received support. In total, the absolute amount of support seems to generally matter and, in some cases, partners’ (dis)-similarity seems relevant.