Partner Effects Research Articles

Auditor partners’ decision behaviors before retirement—the moderating effect of industry specialists

ABSTRACT This study examines whether audit partners’ client acceptance decisions and audit quality vary before retirement, along with examining the moderating effect of partners’ industry specialization. By using Taiwanese data, we find that partners accept less risky new clients before retirement and provide services of similar quality to those in earlier career periods. However, relative to non-specialists, industry specialists tend to accept risky clients before retirement and perform services of higher quality than those in earlier periods. Collectively, the results indicate that audit partners experience changes in their decision-making behaviors before retirement, but the behaviors differ between non-specialist and specialist partners.

Emerging adult siblings' relational entitlement and conflict: The moderating effects of financial dependence on parents

AbstractPast literature has documented a linkage between entitlement and interpersonal tension, primarily in romantic relationships. However, there is a lack of research investigating the impact of entitlement on sibling relationships. Guided by the agency model of narcissism and adult development literature, this study conceptualized relational entitlement as one form of state narcissism and examined the actor and partner effects of relational entitlement on perceived sibling conflict as well as the moderating effects of financial dependence on parents. Participants were 136 emerging adult sibling dyads (older sibling Mage = 22.20, SD = 2.35; younger sibling Mage = 19.54, SD = 1.55). Results indicated that younger siblings' (not older siblings') relational entitlement was positively associated with both their own and their siblings' perceptions of conflict. Moreover, younger siblings' financial dependence buffered the actor association between younger siblings' relational entitlement and perceived conflict. These findings suggest that emerging adult siblings' developmental status of financial dependence provides a nuanced context for understanding the actor and partner effects of relational entitlement on sibling conflict. The discussion focuses on the role of self‐inflated social comparison in emerging adult sibling conflict and how the developmental characteristics of older and younger siblings shape the above associations.

Worrying about our children: Parental worry and psychological well-being among Korean middle-aged couples.

When children reach a certain age of maturity, middle-aged parents often reflect on their parenting, harboring continuous worries about their adult children. These parenting experiences are also shared within couples and continue to impact parents' well-being. Utilizing couple data from the 2010 Korean Baby Boomer Panel Study, we examined the dyadic associations of worry about child issues and psychological well-being among middle-aged couples (N = 1,091; aged 47-55) who have at least one adult child (Mage = 23.13 years). Results from the actor-partner interdependence model showed that one's own parental worry was significantly associated with psychological well-being for both husbands and wives (i.e., actor effects). Further, wives' worry about children was significantly associated with husbands' psychological well-being (i.e., partner effects)-but not vice versa. These findings highlight that aspects of parenting not only impact children but also extend to the linked lives of midlife parents themselves. Research on parental experiences at the couple level may inform interventions to enhance middle-aged parents' well-being. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

When love hurts: Testing the stress generation hypothesis between depressive symptoms, conflict behaviors, and breakup rumination in romantic couples

Introduction: In this study we investigated the stress generation hypothesis in romantic relationships, testing how individuals’ depressive symptoms can lead to interpersonal stress that worsens their depressive symptoms. Interpersonal stress was operationalized as conflict enactment (critical, hostile, and rejecting behaviors toward one's romantic partner) and breakup rumination (persistent and intense thoughts of ending the relationship). Methods: Participants included 226 heterosexual adult romantic couples, with a mean age of 21.48 years for women and 22.35 years for men. A short-term longitudinal design was employed, involving three waves of data collection, including a daily diary portion. Depressive symptoms were measured in the lab at the beginning of the study (Wave 1) and again one month later (Wave 3). Following Wave 1, conflict enactment and breakup rumination were measured online over a 14-day period (Wave 2) through daily diary entries, which were then averaged across the 14 days into a single score for each construct. Results: Using actor-partner interdependence mediation modelling, we found women's and men's depressive symptoms at Wave 1 positively predicted their own conflict enactment and breakup rumination at Wave 2, as well as their own depressive symptoms at Wave 3 (actor effects). Women's depressive symptoms at Wave 1 positively predicted men's conflict enactment at Wave 2 (partner effect). Additionally, women's conflict enactment at Wave 2 positively predicted their own depressive symptoms at Wave 3 (actor effect) and mediated the increase in their own depressive symptoms from Wave 1 to 3 (indirect effect). Discussion: Findings illustrate how depressive symptoms are embedded in an interpersonal context and exacerbated by conflictual behaviors within romantic relationships over a period of one month.

Associations between adolescent friends' responses during problem talk and depressive symptoms.

The present study examined how friends' responses to each other during problem talk predicted depressive symptoms over time. Participants included 271 adolescent friend dyads (69 female and 69 male early adolescent dyads; 72 female and 61 male middle adolescent dyads; 66.4% White and 26.6% Black). The adolescents were observed discussing a problem with the friend and reported on depressive symptoms at the time of observation and 9 months later. Friends' responses were coded into one of nine response type categories (i.e., four positive/engaged response types, one neutral response type, and four negative/disengaged response types). Actor-partner interdependence models revealed significant actor and partner effects for both positive and negative responses. Notably, receiving and/or producing positive/engaged responses, including saying something supportive, sharing related experiences, and asking questions, were associated with lower depressive symptoms over time. Receiving and/or producing negative/disengaged responses, including sharing one's own experience in a distracting way, changing the subject, saying something unsupportive or minimizing the problem, and saying nothing at all heightened risk for depressive symptoms. Additionally, significant Actor × Partner interactions revealed that greater differences between the friends in the degree to which they produced supportive responses were associated with increased depressive symptoms and that both friends saying nothing at all was associated with increased depressive symptoms. When gender and grade differences were found, the associations typically were particularly strong for middle-adolescent girls. These results highlight the importance of attending to friends' specific behaviors in social support contexts. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

Spousal collaboration mediates the relation between self-rated health and depressive symptoms of Chinese older couples: an actor-partner interdependence approach

BackgroundDyadic coping resources have been considered a potential explanatory mechanism of spousal interdependence in health, but the mediation of spousal collaboration for the relationship between self-rated health and depressive symptoms has yet to be examined. This study aimed to investigate the within- (actor effect) and between-partner effects of self-rated health on depressive symptoms in community-dwelling older couples facing physical functioning limitations and to examine the role of spousal collaboration in mediating the actor and cross-partner effects of self-rated health on depressive symptoms.MethodData from 185 community-dwelling older Chinese married couples were analyzed using the actor–partner interdependence mediation model (APIMeM). Couples were interviewed through trained research assistants using the 5-item common dyadic coping subscale of the Dyadic Coping Inventory (DCI), the Visual Analog Scale (VAS) of the QoL questionnaire EQ-5D and the Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ‐9).ResultsHusbands’ self-rated health had an actor effect on their own depressive symptoms and a partner effect on their wives’ depressive symptoms. Wives’ self-rated health had an actor effect on their own depressive symptoms. The actor effects between self-rated health and depressive symptoms were partially mediated by their own perception of spousal collaboration. Furthermore, husbands’ self-rated health not only affects wives’ depressive symptoms directly but also indirectly by influencing wives’ perceptions of spousal collaboration.DiscussionThe findings from this study underscored the importance of viewing couples’ coping processes from a dyadic and gender-specific perspective, since more (perceived) collaborative efforts have beneficial effects on both partners’ mental health outcomes.

Genetic Variation in Male Aggression Is Influenced by Genotype of Prior Social Partners in Drosophila melanogaster.

AbstractSocial behaviors can be influenced by the genotypes of interacting individuals through indirect genetic effects (IGEs) and can also display developmental plasticity. We investigated how developmental IGEs, which describe the effects of a prior social partner's genotype on later behavior, can influence aggression in male Drosophila melanogaster. We predicted that developmental IGEs cannot be estimated by simply extending the effects of contextual IGEs over time and instead have their own unique effects on behavior. On day 1 of the experiment, we measured aggressive behavior in 15 genotypic pairings ( males). On day 2, each of the males was paired with a new opponent, and aggressive behavior was again measured. We found contextual IGEs on day 1 of the experiment and developmental IGEs on day 2 of the experiment: the influence of the day 1 partner's genotype on the focal individual's day 2 behavior depended on the genotypic identity of both the day 1 partner and the focal male. Importantly, the developmental IGEs in our system produced fundamentally different dynamics than the contextual IGEs, as the presence of IGEs was altered over time. These findings represent some of the first empirical evidence demonstrating developmental IGEs, a first step toward incorporating developmental IGEs into our understanding of behavioral evolution.

Audit partner style and financial statement comparability: New evidence from the US market

AbstractWe explore the influence of individual audit partner style on financial statement comparability in a US setting using newly available data. We find evidence of an audit partner style effect on comparability incremental to audit firm and audit office effects. Our results are consistent across several comparability measures and are economically significant. For example, the audit partner effect is associated with a 12.59% decrease in the mean difference in abnormal accruals compared with a 4.4% decrease for firm pairs audited by the same Big 4 audit office. We also find that audit partner expertise and experience have a greater influence on comparability than audit office expertise and experience. Our results are consistent in endogeneity and robustness tests including (1) auditor switching tests, (2) entropy balancing, (3) placebo tests and (4) controlling for clients’ economic similarity. Our results suggest that the association between audit partner style and financial statement comparability persists in highly regulatory environments and corroborate the PCAOB's intuition that the role of the engagement partner “is of singular importance” to the outcome of the audit (PCAOB 2011).

Partner’s unemployment and subjective well-being: The mediating role of relationship functioning

Unemployment affects not only the subjective well-being of the individual, but also that of the partner. Based on the life course perspective and the spillover-crossover-model, we examine the mediating role of relationship functioning for such crossover effects of partner’s unemployment on subjective well-being. We also test whether gender differences in the mechanism of relationship functioning can explain the larger overall crossover effects on women compared to men. We use data from the German Family Panel pairfam (2008/09–2018/19), which provide more direct and comprehensive measures of relationship functioning than previous research, and allow us to examine couples’ communication and interactions, their conflict styles and behaviors, relationship satisfaction, and perceived relationship instability as mediators. To analyze the impact of the partner’s transition to unemployment on subjective well-being, we use fixed effects panel regression models and the product method of mediation analysis to estimate the indirect effects of relationship functioning. The results show that a partner’s transition to unemployment has a negative impact on one’s own well-being. The effects are more pronounced for women than men which can be partly explained by gender-specific effects of the partner’s unemployment on various aspects of relationship functioning, rather than by differential effects of the latter on one’s own well-being.

Sexual Sanctification and Relationship Satisfaction in Black Heterosexual Couples

This study examines dyadic data from 299 married and 242 cohabiting Black heterosexual couples in the United States (an understudied cross-section of the population) and assesses individual (actor) effects as well as couple (partner) effects of sexual sanctification and relationship satisfaction. Higher levels of sexual sanctification were associated with higher levels of relationship satisfaction for women and men in the actor effects, but no significant associations were found in the partner effects for couples. Additionally, initial findings suggest that sexual sanctification may act as a relational protective factor for Black married and cohabiting couples. Implications for further research as well as practical applications for clergy, therapists, and practitioners working with Black heterosexual couples in sexual relationships are also discussed.

Perceptions of women and men in mixed-race heterosexual relationships

Although the number of mixed-race couples is increasing in North America, these couples continue to experience stigma and discrimination, which can have deleterious effects on individuals in these relationships. In three samples, we examined perceivers’ first impressions of targets in mixed-race couples when viewed with their romantic partner versus alone, including their warmth and competence (Sample 1a), global morality (Sample 1b), and specific stereotypic behaviors including likelihood to betray, conform, and be prejudiced (Sample 1c). Partner effects occurred for specific stereotypes relevant for intergroup behaviors such that individuals in mixed-race couples were rated as more likely to betray close others and to be less conforming and less prejudiced than individuals in same-race couples when viewed with their partners. These results suggest that specific stereotypes relevant for intergroup relations are affected by the race of targets’ romantic partners and lay the foundation for understanding the unique challenges faced by members of mixed-race couples.

Social Inhibition and Depressive Symptoms among Couples with Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder: The Mediating Role of Perceived Family Support.

Background and Objectives: A limited understanding exists regarding the intricate dynamics between the levels of social inhibition exhibited by both wives and husbands concerning their perceived family support and depressive symptoms, particularly within couples who are parents of children diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Materials and Methods: This study used the actor-partner interdependence mediation model to analyze data collected from 397 pairs of Chinese parents with children diagnosed with ASD. Results: The findings of the study revealed significant indirect actor effects, indicating that the levels of social inhibition exhibited by both wives and husbands were associated with their own depressive symptoms through their respective perceptions of family support. In general, the study did not find significant partner effects, except for some indirect effects of wives on their husbands' depressive symptoms through the wives' perceived social support. Conclusions: In line with related studies, social inhibition was associated with depressive symptoms. At the same time, perceived family support could be a mediator of depression. Gender differences in emotional expression, influenced by cultural norms and distinct role expectations within the family context, may elucidate why only wives' perceived family support could impact husbands' depressive symptoms. These results underscore the potential importance of interventions aimed at addressing social inhibition and enhancing perceived family support to alleviate depressive symptoms in this population. Additionally, encouraging family support for both wives and husbands' involvement in collaboration may be of benefit in improved outcomes for both parents and children within families affected by ASD.

The Influence of Organizational Culture, Alliance Partners, Digital Capability on Firm Performance Mediated by Strategy Flexibility

Aims: The study examines the effects of organizational culture, alliance partners, and digital capability on firm performance, mediated by strategy flexibility in the national automotive component industry in Indonesia.
 Study Design: The data collection technique was non-probability sampling with purposive sampling method in which the number of samples that met the criteria to be analyzed were 228 companies.
 Place and Duration of Study: The population of this study were all automotive component companies located in Jakarta, Banten and West Java, totaling 237. Each sampled company is represented by one respondent, namely a manager or senior manager of an automotive component industry company.
 Methodology: Structural Equation Model (SEM).
 Results: These findings suggest the importance of flexible strategies for leveraging internal and external resources to enhance performance. Strategy flexibility partially mediates the effects of organizational culture and digital capability on firm performance, and fully mediates the effect of alliance partners.
 Conclusion: This study shows the results of the positive influence of Organizational culture, Alliance Partners, Digital Capability, and Strategy Flexibility toward Firm Performance. Strategy Flexibility as a mediating variable can mediate the effect of Organizational Culture, Alliance Partners and Digital Capability on Firm Performance. The implications of this research can be an input for the leaders of the national automotive component industry companies in making a strategic decision to face the challenges of increasingly complex business competition through the implementation of a flexible strategy in the services and processes of the manufacturing industry which has implications for improving company performance.

Power Balance and Relationship Quality: An Overstated Link

Power balance, that is, equal levels of potential influence between relationship partners, has been linked to relationship happiness. This study examined whether power balance is indeed positively related to relationship quality (RQ) for both couple members using dyadic response surface analysis (total N = 879 couples). In Studies 1 to 3, we found linear but no similarity effects of power on RQ. Experiencing power was positively related to both actor’s and partner’s RQ. In Study 4, again, no similarity but actor and partner effects were found on sexual satisfaction. These findings show that the link between power balance and RQ found in previous research does not hold with sophisticated analysis techniques that overcome issues of previous approaches (e.g., difference scores). In fact, the absolute level of experienced power, not power balance, matters for both RQ and sexual satisfaction. Practitioners may target strengthening an individual’s power instead of focusing on issues of power balance.

Group member attachment style interacts with actor and partner helping alliance to predict decreasing binge eating episodes

Objective An individual’s attachment style may impact how they interact with their therapy group. This study examined the moderating role of a group member’s attachment on the dynamic relationships between that group member’s (actor) and other group members’ (partner) therapeutic alliances and symptom outcomes. Method: This is a secondary analysis of data from a trial testing the outcome of emotionally-focused group therapy for binge-eating disorder. The sample consisted of 2,360 sessions nested within 118 group members who attended a 20-session treatment. Patients recorded binge eating episodes (BEE), their body weight and an alliance measure session-by-session. Results Dynamic structural equation modelling showed decreases in BEE and weight over the therapy. When attachment style was not included in the model, higher-than-average partner’s alliance scores in the previous session were related to decreases in BEE in the current session. Attachment style moderated these actor and partner effects. For patients with preoccupied attachments, higher-than-average actor alliance in the previous session was related to subsequent decreases in BEE. For patients with dismissing or disorganized attachments, higher partner alliance in the previous session was related to subsequent decreases in BEE. Conclusion Group members’ attachment characteristics can play a role in the development of alliance-outcome patterns in group therapy.

Exploring Family Adjustment Among Parents of a Child With a Disability Attending Relationship Education

Objective: The current exploratory study examined dyadic changes in family adjustment (i.e., parental stress, positive coping, family-based support, social support) reported by parents of a child with a disability after 12-hours of relationship education (RE). Background: Parents of a child with a disability encounter social barriers that contribute to parental stress and inhibit family well-being. RE reduced psychological and relationship distress in community samples—yet, ability status and the influence on a family's presenting needs/resources are overlooked in previous research. Methods: We extracted a subset of data to examine pre- and post-reports of family adjustment among couples parenting a child with a disability who completed the PREP curriculum. We used structural equation modeling to examine an actor–partner interdependence model for the dyadic association of mean-centered baseline subscale measures of family adjustment and residual change scores for men and women in a relationship post-RE intervention. Results: Actor effects were significant and predicted the amount of residual change for men and women. Significant partner effects existed for male social support and male and female family-based support. Conclusion: Results expand our understanding of RE effectiveness with an understudied subset of parents, those raising a child with a disability. Parents reported improvements in family adjustment and partners influenced one another in terms of family adjustment changes. Implications: Supportive parent programming, such as RE, may be an important consideration for families that include a child with a disability to address the social barriers that tax existing parent and family resources.

The Relations Between Parents’ Gender Equality Values and (co)parenting: Examining Actor-Partner Effects in an Australian Community Sample

In most Western societies, parents’ gender roles and values have shifted significantly over the past decades. However, it is not yet clear whether parents’ gender-related values impact both their own and their partners’ coparenting and parenting practices. This study examined the relations between parents’ gender equality values, their coparenting, and parental warmth and hostility. Drawing 6745 families from an ongoing Australian panel study, we used actor-partner interdependence modeling to estimate the associations between mothers’ and fathers’ equality values and their (co)parenting. Results revealed a significant positive partner effect of mothers’ gender equality values on fathers’ warmth and coparenting, but no significant actor effects for mothers’ or fathers’ values. We also found that mothers’ work status moderated the relationship between parents’ values and coparenting. In conclusion, these findings suggest that it is important to consider mothers’ gender values and its transactional influence on fathers’ involvement for understanding contemporary parenting.

How can I help?: Specific strategies used in interpersonal emotion regulation in a relationship context.

Most emotion regulation research investigates how individuals manage their own emotions but in everyday life, emotion regulation often takes place in an interpersonal context-that is, through the intervention of others, especially close relationship partners. In this manuscript, we describe a 2-week daily diary study of 197 couples, in which we examined the nature and effectiveness of partners' attempts at interpersonal emotion regulation. Organized around the extended process model of emotion regulation (Gross, 2015), we examined the frequency and perceived effectiveness of six strategies for regulating negative emotions and two strategies for regulating positive emotions, as well as the impact of emotional regulation effectiveness on relationship satisfaction. Results indicated that situation modification was the most common approach to regulating negative emotions, whereas savoring was most common for positive emotions. Most strategies were perceived to be effective by both regulators and their targets, with the exception of suppression for negative emotion, for which evidence was mixed, and dampening for positive emotion, which was not viewed as effective. The influence of emotion regulation on relationship satisfaction depended on one's perspective: Regulators felt that their effective efforts benefitted their relationships, but even when targets experienced emotion regulation as effective, they indicated no improvements in relationship satisfaction, perhaps because the emotion-eliciting events were still salient to them. Broadly speaking, this research highlights the value of examining emotion regulation in an interpersonal context, and in the context of partners' ordinary, everyday social interaction. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).

Going through it together: Dyadic associations between parents' birth experience, relationship satisfaction, and mental health

BackgroundPrevious research suggests that a negative birth experience is associated with symptoms of postpartum depression and anxiety in mothers and partners. However, this has mostly been investigated within the first year postpartum and research on the long-term effects is lacking. Additionally, the role of relationship satisfaction and the interdependence between parents have not been considered so far. MethodsCouples (N = 1992) completed questionnaires on their birth experience, relationship satisfaction, and symptoms of depression and anxiety at two months, 14 months, and two years after birth, respectively. ResultsActor-Partner Interdependence Mediation Models indicated no partner effects, but several significant actor and indirect effects. A more positive birth experience was associated with higher relationship satisfaction and less depression and anxiety symptoms for both parents. Higher relationship satisfaction was in turn associated with less depression (mothers and partners) and anxiety symptoms (mothers). The association between birth experience and depression symptoms was partially mediated by relationship satisfaction for mothers and partners, while the association between birth experience and anxiety symptoms was partially mediated by relationship satisfaction only for mothers. LimitationsDue to the highly educated, very healthy sample with low levels of depression and anxiety as well as high relationship satisfaction, results cannot be generalized to less privileged parents. Moreover, all effects were very small. ConclusionsResults highlight the importance of a positive birth experience for parents' relationship satisfaction and mental health. Negative birth experiences need to be avoided to prevent a negative impact on the whole family.

Racial discrimination and parenting perceptions among low-income Black couples.

Racism affects Black individuals in the United States through multiple institutional, social, and economic injustices. Relationship scientists have called for greater attention to the potentially harmful effects racism might exert on Black families. A small literature has begun to document negative associations between experiences of racism and romantic relationship functioning. However, even less empirical work has focused on a central relationship domain for many Black couples: parenting. The present study used cross-sectional data (N = 312 couples) from low-income Black couples who had recently had a child together. We examined associations between both partners' experiences of racial discrimination and their coparenting relationship quality and parenting stress. We next controlled for depression and relationship dedication as substantive covariates that could guide future research in this area. Actor-partner interdependence models revealed actor associations between discrimination and poorer parenting outcomes and a partner association specifically between one's partner's discrimination experience and own lower coparenting relationship quality. This partner effect was no longer significant, and actor effects were attenuated, when controlling for depression and relationship dedication, respectively. Our findings indicate that the negative effects of racial discrimination on Black couples' relationships are also apparent in the parenting domain, even above and beyond associations of individual depression and relationship dedication. These findings underscore the urgent need for more basic science to better understand the harms of racism for Black families, identify mechanisms that drive those effects, and highlight ways that clinical services can begin to address these impacts even now. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).