Positive Dyadic Coping Emerges as a Promising Avenue to Enhance Relationship Satisfaction for Intercultural Relationships
What is the issue?
Intercultural relationships are defined here as relationships where partners are from different nations and have been raised according to different cultural standards and expectations. While these types of relationships are becoming more common, the research is lacking in understanding if and how these couples manage, interpret, and cope with stress (dyadic coping).
What is the purpose of this investigation?
For that reason, Holzapfel et al., investigated three different ideas, the first one being if and how intercultural partners communicate internal stress with their partner and if so, does that influence their or their partner's relationship satisfaction. The second idea was, do these partners engage in dyadic coping, is it positive or negative? And lastly, they explored if dyadic coping behaviors have any impact on relationship satisfaction and internal stress for intercultural couples.
What were the results?
Intercultural partners who reported feeling more internal stress also reported being less satisfied with their relationship. This was the same for partners who reported having greater internal stress. With stress communication the more a partner communicated the stress they were feeling to their partner the more their partner reported experiencing internal stress and being less satisfied with their relationship. Lastly, Holzapfel et al., found that partners who recognized their partner engaging in positive dyadic coping, like being empathic or understanding, reported being more satisfied in their relationship.
What are the implications?
While intercultural relationships are now becoming more widely accepted it is important to continue to research to discover and share ways for couples to maintain their relationships. Overall, these findings suggest that it is important to examine both partner's levels and perceptions of stress for intercultural couples because one partner's stress levels may greatly play a role in the other partner's stress. If one partner is negatively handling stressful situations, stress and negative coping is likely to rub onto the other partner ultimately worsening relationship satisfaction and creating a higher likelihood for the relationship to end. Lastly, to maintain high levels of relationship satisfaction intercultural couples should try and communicate their experiences of stress to their partner when it first occurs to help eliminate the buildup of stress.
