The Role of Interpersonal Competence in Fostering High-Quality Friendships and Romantic Relationships in Emerging Adulthood

• In Event: Poster Session 05
  In Poster Session: PS 05 Topic - Social Relationships

Abstract

The significance of emerging adults’ close relationships with peers has been clearly emphasized. For example, high-quality friendships and romantic relationships are associated with happiness (Demir, 2008; 2010) and increased well-being (Feeney & Collins, 2015), and those with higher-quality (e.g., intimate) friendships tend to also report having higher-quality romantic relationship experiences (Kochendorfer & Kerns, 2019). What is not yet clear are the mechanisms that help account for the link between friendship quality and romantic relationship quality. Various domains of interpersonal competence are highlighted as potentially important for fostering high-quality close peer relationships (Buhrmester et al., 1988). Thus, the present study seeks to examine whether seven domains of interpersonal competence (conflict management; emotional support provision; forgiveness; gratitude; initiation; self-assertion; self-disclosure) are linked to and similarly foster high-quality friendship and romantic relationship experiences in emerging adulthood.

This study used a subsample of emerging adults (n = 116) from an ongoing project at a public university in the midwestern United States. This subsample included emerging adults (ages 18 to 25 years) who had both a current friendship and a current romantic relationship. Participants were invited to an in-lab session where they completed a series of questionnaires on Qualtrics. Participants reported on their comfort and confidence handling various social situations (Interpersonal Competency Questionnaire; Buhrmester et al., 1992), how they usually respond when someone offends them (Tendency to Forgive scale; Brown, 2003), and their dispositional gratitude (revised Gratitude Questionnaire; McCullough et al., 2002; Chen et al., 2009). Participants also reported on the general positive and negative quality of their relationships with friends and romantic partners (Network of Relationships Inventory - Social Provisions Version; Furman & Buhrmester, 1985).

Pearson product-moment correlation coefficients showed that all the interpersonal competencies except forgiveness were associated with positive or negative friendship quality, while only conflict management and self-assertion competence were associated with romantic relationship quality (see Table 1). Interestingly, the interpersonal competencies were most consistently related to positive qualities in friendship but to negative qualities in romantic relationships. A series of linear regressions assessed total variance explained by the set of competencies as well as whether any of the competencies uniquely predict positive and negative friendship and romantic relationship quality. Emotional support provision significantly and positively predicted positive friendship quality, and self-assertion significantly and positively predicted negative friendship quality. No competencies significantly predicted positive romantic relationship quality, although lower conflict management and higher self-assertion significantly predicted negative romantic relationship quality (see Table 2).

These results provide support for the idea, proposed by many relationship theorists (e.g., Buhrmester et al., 1988; Rose-Krasnor & Denham, 2009), that several domains of interpersonal competence might be linked to the quality of individuals’ close relationships. In contrast to the assumption that high levels of interpersonal competence would be similarly important for fostering both high-quality friendships and romantic relationships, it appears that certain competencies are more important for specific relationship contexts (e.g., emotional support provision and initiation are more relevant for friendship).

Authors

• Logan Kochendorfer, Kent State University
  Presenting Author

• Kathryn A Kerns, Kent State University
  Non-Presenting Author