Abstract
Following the global outbreak of COVID-19 in March 2020, individuals report psychological distress associated with the “new normal”—social distancing, financial hardships, and increased responsibilities while working from home. Given the interpersonal nature of stress and coping responses between romantic partners, based on the systemic transactional model this study posits that perceived partner dyadic coping may be an important moderator between experiences of COVID-19 psychological distress and relationship quality. To examine these associations, self-report data from 14,020 people across 27 countries were collected during the early phases of the COVID-19 pandemic (March–July, 2020). It was hypothesized that higher symptoms of psychological distress would be reported post-COVID-19 compared to pre-COVID-19 restrictions (Hypothesis 1), reports of post-COVID-19 psychological distress would be negatively associated with relationship quality (Hypothesis 2), and perceived partner DC would moderate these associations (Hypothesis 3). While hypotheses were generally supported, results also showed interesting between-country variability. Limitations and future directions are presented.
Original language | American English |
---|---|
Pages (from-to) | 3-33 |
Number of pages | 31 |
Journal | Journal of Social and Personal Relationships |
Volume | 39 |
Issue number | 1 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - 1 Jan 2022 |
Keywords
- COVID-19
- distress
- dyadic coping
- multination
- relationship quality
All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes
- Communication
- Developmental and Educational Psychology
- Social Psychology
- Sociology and Political Science