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Given the powerful implications of relationship quality for health and well-being, a central mission of relationship science is explaining why some romantic relationships thrive more than others. This large-scale project used machine learning (i.e., Random Forests) to 1) quantify the extent to which relationship quality is predictable and 2) identify which constructs reliably predict relationship quality. Across 43 dyadic longitudinal datasets from 29 laboratories, the top relationship-specific predictors of relationship quality were perceived-partner commitment, appreciation, sexual satisfaction, perceived-partner satisfaction, and conflict. The top individual-difference predictors were life satisfaction, negative affect, depression, attachment avoidance, and attachment anxiety. Overall, relationship-specific variables predicted up to 45% of variance at baseline, and up to 18% of variance at the end of each study. Individual differences also performed well (21% and 12%, respectively). Actor-reported variables (i.e., own relationship-specific and individual-difference variables) predicted two to four times more variance than partner-reported variables (i.e., the partner's ratings on those variables). Importantly, individual differences and partner reports had no predictive effects beyond actor-reported relationship-specific variables alone. These findings imply that the sum of all individual differences and partner experiences exert their influence on relationship quality via a person's own relationship-specific experiences, and effects due to moderation by individual differences and moderation by partner-reports may be quite small. Finally, relationship-quality change (i.e., increases or decreases in relationship quality over the course of a study) was largely unpredictable from any combination of self-report variables. This collective effort should guide future models of relationships.

The COVID-19 pandemic is placing demands on parents that may amplify the risk of parents' distress and poor parenting. Leveraging a prepandemic study in New Zealand, the current research tested whether parents' psychological distress during a mandated lockdown predicts relative residual changes in poorer parenting and whether partner support and cooperative coparenting buffer this potentially detrimental effect. Participants included 362 parents; 310 were from the same family (155 dyads). Parents had completed assessments of psychological distress and parenting prior to the pandemic and then reported on their distress, parenting, partner support, and cooperative coparenting during a nationwide COVID-19 lockdown. Parents' distress during the lockdown predicted relative residual increases in harsh parenting, but this effect was buffered by partner support. Parents' distress also predicted residual decreases in warm/responsive parenting and parent-child relationship quality, but these effects were buffered by cooperative coparenting. Partner support and cooperative coparenting are important targets for future research and interventions to help parents navigate challenging family contexts, including COVID-19 lockdowns.

This study presents the Broad Inventory of Specific Life Events (BISLE), a comprehensive inventory and coding schedule that categorizes a far wider range of life events occurring in the past year than those covered in previous inventories. The BISLE uses a checklist of select probe events combined with a coding scheme for qualified responses to an open-ended question capturing the broad range of other events people perceive as being important to them in the past year. We demonstrate the utility of the BISLE using a large-scale national probability New Zealand sample (N = 47,951). Life events relating to health (29.65%), death (21.25%), work (13.78%), and relationships (9.61%) were the most frequently reported as having occurred in the past year. Further, women, younger people, and ethnic minority group members reported more overall annual events. Coding of open-ended responses from the BISLE demonstrated excellent inter-rater reliability. Validation analyses indicated that the BISLE predicted key outcomes in expected directions, including life satisfaction and psychological distress. The BISLE was developed for large-scale panel studies with limited space that could benefit from capturing self-reports of diverse life events occurring in people's lives over a given timeframe. Keywords: Major life events, life events inventory, prevalence, demographic differences, validity, inter-rater reliability, Introduction Stressors--exposure to environmental demands that cause stress--play a critical role in people's health and well-being (Wethington, 2016). Research typically categorizes stressors by (a) daily hassles which require little adaptation [...]

People who feel powerless are motivated to gain power, which may include men endorsing hostile sexism to affirm societal power or women endorsing benevolent sexism to affirm power in relationships. We used four waves of an annual longitudinal panel sample (N = 58,405) to test whether within‐person changes in powerlessness predicted subsequent changes in men's hostile sexism and women's benevolent sexism. Results from a random intercept cross‐lagged panel model indicated that men who generally felt more powerless tended to endorse hostile sexism, but within‐person tests did not provide directional evidence linking men's powerlessness with hostile sexism. By contrast, women who generally felt more powerless endorsed benevolent sexism more strongly, and small within‐person lagged effects indicated that upward deviations in women's powerlessness in 1 year predicted stronger endorsement of benevolent sexism the following year. These results provide novel evidence that powerlessness motivates women's benevolent sexism and their toleration of gender inequalities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We examined whether the impact of the pandemic on couple relationships varied across cultural contexts. Following from studies showing better outcomes (lower disease risk, greater well-being) within cultures higher in tightness (having strong norms promoting conformity) or collectivism (vs. individualism), we predicted that tighter and more collectivistic contexts would be associated with better relationship functioning. Preregistered analyses using existing data collected during the pandemic (N = 2510; 12 countries), indicated, counter to predictions, that individuals from countries higher in tightness or collectivism evidenced greater relationship conflict. Cultural context was unrelated to relationship quality. Stress, attachment insecurity, and perceived partner responsiveness predicted relationship quality during the pandemic, but cultural context generally did not moderate these links. Perceived partner responsiveness, however, predicted relationship quality more strongly within more collectivistic (vs. more individualistic) countries. We discuss possible explanations for these findings, limitations of the data, and the need for larger studies including a broader range of countries, individuals, and cultural contexts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction The shock and horror of the March 15th 2019 terrorist attack in Christchurch will shape our nation for many years to come. With 51 Muslim men, women, and children [...], Following the March 15th Christchurch terrorist attack, members of our research team have been repeatedly asked to comment or provide summary statistics from the New Zealand Attitudes and Values Study (NZAVS) on prejudice toward Muslims. As the curators of the NZAVS, we think that these findings should be in the public domain and accessible to as wide an audience as possible. In this article, we aim to provide a comprehensive summary of what we know from the NZAVS about attitudes toward Muslims and prejudice in New Zealand more generally. From 2012 onwards, the NZAVS included a feeling thermometer rating of people's level of warmth toward Muslims. Here, we summarize what we know from the NZAVS about levels of warmth toward Muslims in the New Zealand population. We describe the distribution of thermometer ratings of warmth toward Muslims annually from 2012 onward, and compare these with thermometer ratings of a range of other groups that we also track. We present a regression model documenting the extent to which a broad range of demographics and aspects of personality are associated with low levels of warmth toward Muslims, and present a parallel model assessing warmth ratings toward immigrants as a comparison. Finally, we present a series of growth curve models outlining the relative level and rate of change over time in warmth toward Muslims and other groups from 2012-2018. Results from these analyses indicate that over the 2012-2018 period, levels of warmth toward Muslims in New Zealand were comparatively low relative to warmth ratings of other groups. However, warmth toward Muslims has also been steadily but gradually increasing over time in New Zealand. Keywords: Prejudice, Muslim, Christchurch Terrorist Attack, Feeling Thermometer

Perspective taking is theorized to help sustain satisfying social relationships by promoting prorelationship responses that reduce harmful negative behaviors in relationship interactions. The present studies provide the first tests of whether perspective taking predicts less negative behavior within couples' daily and lab-based conflict interactions. In Study 1, individuals (N = 77) rated their perspective taking and their own and partner's hurtful, critical, and distancing behavior each day for 14 days. In Study 2, couples (N = 78 dyads) completed the same daily measures for 21 days. In Study 3, couples (N = 143 dyads) engaged in a lab-based video-recorded discussion of their most serious conflict. Each dyad member reported on the degree to which they engaged in perspective taking, and their own and their partner's negative behavior, during the discussion. Objective coders also rated the degree to which both partners exhibited negative behavior during the discussion. Actors' perspective taking was associated with actors' lower negative behavior as reported by actors (Studies 1–3) and partners (Study 2) and as rated by observers (Study 3). Significant interaction effects also suggested that actors' perspective taking attenuated how much actors behaved more negatively as their partners behaved more negatively, although the moderating pattern was weaker within daily reports (Studies 1 and 2) compared to couple's observed conflict interactions (Study 3). The attenuating effects of perspective taking were independent of commitment, satisfaction, self-esteem, and attachment insecurity. These studies provide new evidence that facilitating perspective taking may reduce common, destructive behaviors that can harm couple relationships. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The COVID-19 pandemic continues to affect couples worldwide who vary in sociocultural values, norms, and expectations, but most work examining connections between pandemic-related stress and couples’ relationships has been conducted in the US or similar Western cultures. Guided by the vulnerability-stress-adaptation (VSA) model (Karney & Bradbury, 1995), we present a revised theoretical framework for evaluating how sociocultural contexts may moderate the ways in which pandemicrelated stress risks poor couple functioning or promotes couples’ resilience. We briefly describe the theoretical model and associated relationship research in the pandemic context and then evaluate how two illustrative sociocultural contexts (country/culture and race/ethnicity) might impact pandemic-related external (disease risks and stress exposure) and internal (psychological distress and felt belonging) stress and adaptive relationship functioning. Our review reveals that much remains to be learned about how couples embedded in different sociocultural contexts have adapted over the course of the global pandemic and highlights key areas for future research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Stage Challenge is a performing arts competition for New Zealand secondary schools. This longitudinal study used observations, repeated questionnaires, informal conversations, and a graffiti board to follow the 5-month experience of a student-led girls' team aged 10 to 17 years (n = 103). The focus was on the quality of their experience and what contributed to and detracted from their desire to repeat it in future. Stage Challenge was affectively positive, provided flow experiences and a sense of integrity for participants. Integrity played a particularly strong role in students' desire to repeat the experience. The experience was socially intense and produced both a sense of togetherness and frustration as a result. Implications for youth performing arts activities are discussed. (Contains 3 figures and 2 tables.)

We tested a dual process motivational model of ambivalent sexism and gender differences in intimate partner preferences. Meta-analysis of 32 samples (16 with men, 16 with women; N = 5,459) indicated that Benevolent Sexism (BS) in women was associated with greater preferences for high-resource partners (r = 0.24), whereas Hostile Sexism (HS) in men was associated with stronger preferences for physically attractive partners (r = 0.20). Study 2 examined the ideological correlates of this gender difference (N = 249 men, 243 women). For women, Right-Wing Authoritarianism (RWA) was associated with greater preferences for high-resource partners, mediated by BS. For men, Social Dominance Orientation (SDO) was associated with greater preferences for attractive partners, mediated by HS. These findings indicate that women's desire for high-resource partners is related to a protection and security-provision motive, whereas men's desire for attractive partners is related to a dominance-based status-marker motive. Gender differences in these dual motives have implications for understanding the reciprocal reinforcement of gender inequality. We argue that they exacerbate gender inequality by decreasing women's immediate motivation for direct access to resources (because they may be provided for by men) and promoting instead goals in women relating to the maintenance of an attractive appearance valued by men. (Contains 1 note and 6 tables.)

A diverse sample of doctoral students completed an on-line questionnaire assessing their supervisors' academic, personal and autonomy support and their research self-efficacy. The more task-related help and personal support students received, the more positively they evaluated their supervision. The degree to which supervisors encouraged students to think and act autonomously (autonomy support) was not uniquely associated with students' supervision satisfaction but predicted greater research self-efficacy. A combination of high levels of autonomy and academic support was associated with the highest levels of research self-efficacy, whereas when greater levels of personal support were accompanied by low levels of autonomy support, students reported lower research self-efficacy. These results indicate that effective doctoral supervision involves supporting students to voice and act on their own ideas while simultaneously providing guidance on how to complete research tasks. (Contains 4 tables and 2 figures.)