The effects of actor-partner’s meal production focus on satisfaction with food related life in cohabiting couples

Abstract

This paper reports the estimation of an Actor-Partner Interdependence Model (APIM), examining how meal preparation focus – measured by taste, context, and thrift–affect actor’s and partner’s satisfaction with food-related life (SWFRL) in cohabiting couples. Questionnaires were administered to 187 different-sex couples in Denmark. Both members of the couple reported their degree of agreement with a set of statements regarding meal production focus and the SWFRL scale. Using the APIM and structural equation modeling, we found that the woman’s SWFRL was positively associated with her own focus on taste in meal production (actor effect), as wells as by her partner’s focus on taste (partner effect). Women’s SWFRL was also positively associated with their own focus on physical context in meal production, and negatively by their partner’s focus on physical context. The man’s SWFRL only was positively associated with his own focus on physical context (actor effect) and by his partner’s focus on thrift in meal production (partner effect). These results suggest that meal-preparation focus relationships between members of a couple, through by both actor and partner effects, can effectively contribute to increase both their satisfaction with food-related life, and their well-being.