Can your friends improve your health? In a study examining friendships and their influence on well-being, Yücel and Dincer (2024) identified links between positive and negative relational self-changes, friendship quality, and well-being. Relational self-changes refer to changes in the way a person sees themself due to a close relationship. A friend motivating you to engage in personal growth (e.g, going to therapy) is an example of a desirable and positive self-change. Conversely, a friend influencing you to engage in more negative behaviors (e.g, binge drinking) is an example of a maladaptive and negative self-change. 

306 undergraduate students completed a survey assessing the quality of their best friendship, relational self-changes in their best friendship, and overall well-being. Results demonstrated that higher quality friendships were associated with more positive self-changes, less negative self-changes, and greater well-being. Findings highlight the power that friendships have on well-being, emphasizing the importance of fostering high-quality friendships. So, if you value your wellbeing, choose your friends wisely – but more importantly, choose to invest time and effort into building fulfilling relationships with those friends.

Citation: Yücel, E., & Dincer, D. (2024). Transformative power of friendships: Examining the relationships among friendship quality, self-change, and well-being. Personal Relationships. https://doi.org/10.1111/pere.12536.

Let’s talk about sex: do couples communicate more lovingly during sexual discussions than they do during nonsexual discussions, and does this affect relationship satisfaction? In 2022, Roels et al. tried to answer these questions by observing how partners in 126 young, mixed-gender couples communicated during sexual and nonsexual conflicts. Researchers took note of how often partners behaved positively and negatively during these types of discussions. Being reassuring and patient, for instance, were seen as positive behaviours, whereas showing contempt and frustration were considered to be negative. The researchers also measured relationship satisfaction and investigated whether it was linked to either type of behaviour during sexual and nonsexual discussions.

Roels et al. found that couples tended to interact more softly with each other when discussing sexual topics. Though this may seem surprising, all of us can agree that sex is an incredibly intimate thing and an important component of most romantic relationships; talking about it can be very anxiety-inducing, and according to previous research, partners tend to approach conversations about sex with caution in order to mitigate stress and make themselves and their partner feel more at-ease (Rehman et al., 2017). As for relationship satisfaction, the researchers found that more positive behaviours were linked with higher relationship satisfaction, regardless of the nature of the discussion. However, when it came to sexual discussions, they found that only men’s negative behaviours were linked with lower relationship satisfaction. These findings highlight the importance of sex in romantic relationships and show the significance of open and kind communication, particularly during sexual discussions, when it comes to fostering healthy and satisfying relationships.

Citation: Roels, R., Rehman, U. S., Goodnight, J. A., & Janssen, E. (2022). Couple Communication Behaviors During Sexual and Nonsexual Discussions and Their Association with Relationship Satisfaction. Archives of sexual behavior, 51(3), 1541–1557. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10508-021-02204-4