22 August 2026
16 studies · 8 pages- Foundational multi-dataset longitudinal (43 couples studies, random-forest ML) 11,196 couples
Machine learning uncovers the most robust self-report predictors of relationship quality across 43 longitudinal couples studies
Samantha Joel, Paul W. Eastwick, Colleen J. Allison, Ximena B. Arriaga, et al. (86 authors) · PNAS, 2020
Relationship-specific perceptions (perceived partner commitment, appreciation, sexual satisfaction, perceived partner satisfaction, conflict) explained up to 45% of the variance in relationship quality at baseline (18% at follow-up), versus ~21% for a person's own traits, while partner-reported variables predicted two to four times less.
Woven into Attachment, Grown UpWhy ThemThe Long RelationshipThe Science of Desire
- Foundational systematic review + meta-analysis (165 independent samples) 165,039 participants
Development of relationship satisfaction across the life span: A systematic review and meta-analysis
Janina Larissa Bühler, Samantha Krauss, Ulrich Orth · Psychological Bulletin, 2021
Across 165 samples (165,039 people), relationship satisfaction falls from age 20 to a low at 40 then rises until 65, and by duration falls to a low at year 10 then recovers until year 20 — with the steepest declines in young adulthood and in a relationship's first years, and children a significant moderator.
Woven into After the BabyThe Long Relationship
- Foundational three studies, including nationally representative survey data; cross-sectional and longitudinal 30,645 participants
Sexual Frequency Predicts Greater Well-Being, But More is Not Always Better
Amy Muise, Ulrich Schimmack, Emily A. Impett · Social Psychological and Personality Science, 2016
Across three studies totalling 30,645 people, sexual frequency predicted greater well-being only up to about once a week, beyond which more sex was no longer associated with higher well-being, with relationship satisfaction mediating the link for people in relationships.
Woven into The Long RelationshipThe Science of Desire
- Foundational meta-analysis (97 studies) 97 studies
The predictive validity of ideal partner preferences: A review and meta-analysis
Paul W. Eastwick, Laura B. Luchies, Eli J. Finkel, Lucy L. Hunt · Psychological Bulletin, 2014
Across 97 studies, physical attractiveness predicted romantic evaluations moderately (r ≈ .40) and earning prospects weakly (r ≈ .10) for both sexes, with the sex difference in predictive validity a nonsignificant r = .03 — stated ideals predict attraction to hypothetical partners far better than to people actually met.
Woven into Why ThemLove in the Age of the Algorithm
- Foundational theoretical review synthesising longitudinal cohabitation research (inertia hypothesis) review; no new sample
Sliding Versus Deciding: Inertia and the Premarital Cohabitation Effect
Scott M. Stanley, Galena K. Rhoades, Howard J. Markman · Family Relations, 2006
Premarital cohabitation's link to higher divorce and marital-distress risk is explained partly by inertia: moving in raises the cost of leaving before commitment is clarified, so some couples who would not otherwise have married do so — transitions made by sliding rather than deciding are the risky ones.
Woven into Cohabitation
- Foundational four studies (daily-diary and dyadic/couple studies) four studies; daily-diary and couple samples (exact Ns per study not in abstract)
What do you do when things go right? The intrapersonal and interpersonal benefits of sharing positive events
Shelly L. Gable, Harry T. Reis, Emily A. Impett, Evan R. Asher · Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 2004
Across four studies, sharing good news with others raised daily positive affect and well-being beyond the effect of the event itself, and relationships in which the partner typically responded actively and constructively to such sharing showed higher intimacy and daily marital satisfaction.
Woven into The Long Relationship
- cross-sectional, nationally representative samples from 50 countries 6,646 partnered adults (mean age 41.5) in 50 countries
Meeting partners online is related to lower relationship satisfaction and love: Data from 50 countries
Marta Kowal, Piotr Sorokowski, Adam Bode, Michał Misiak, Wojciech Małecki, Agnieszka Sorokowska, S. Craig Roberts · Telematics and Informatics, 2025
Across 6,646 partnered adults from 50 countries, 16% had met their partner online (21% for relationships begun after 2010), and those who met online reported lower relationship satisfaction and lower intimacy, passion and commitment than those who met offline, with small-to-medium effects that held after controlling for age and gender — a finding that contradicts the Cacioppo 2013 US result and Potarca's 2020 Swiss null.
Woven into Love in the Age of the AlgorithmScreens Between Us
- meta-analysis of 52 studies (58 samples), mostly cross-sectional 19,698 participants
A meta-analytic study of partner phubbing and its antecedents and consequences
Na Ni, Seyedali Ahrari, Zeinab Zaremohzzabieh, Mostafa Zarean, Samsilah Roslan · Frontiers in Psychology, 2025
Across 52 studies (n = 19,698), partner phubbing correlated r = −0.22 with relationship satisfaction, r = −0.27 with intimacy, r = −0.29 with partner responsiveness and r = 0.57 with conflict, and its strongest antecedent was media addiction (r ≈ 0.49).
Woven into Screens Between Us
- dyadic cross-sectional, response surface analysis (polynomial regression replacing difference scores) 366 couples
Are Couples More Satisfied When They Match in Sexual Desire? New Insights From Response Surface Analyses
James J. Kim, Amy Muise, Max Barranti, Kristen P. Mark, Natalie O. Rosen, Cheryl Harasymchuk, Emily A. Impett · Social Psychological and Personality Science, 2021
In 366 couples analysed with dyadic response-surface methods, there was no unique benefit to partners matching in sexual desire — higher desire levels, not closeness of match, predicted relationship and sexual satisfaction.
Woven into The Science of Desire
- harmonized multi-wave retrospective survey (6 waves of the US National Survey of Family Growth), discrete-time event-history models, marriages 1970–2015 216,455 couple-years (women ≤44, first marriages)
Cohabitation Experience and Cohabitation's Association With Marital Dissolution
Michael J. Rosenfeld, Katharina Roesler · Journal of Marriage and Family, 2019
Across 216,455 couple-years from six NSFG waves, premarital cohabitation predicted lower dissolution in the first year of marriage but higher dissolution thereafter, and the association did not weaken across marriage cohorts — a CONTESTED result (Manning, Smock & Kuperberg 2021 reply that the link is weaker for recently married couples).
Woven into Cohabitation
- dyadic 14-day daily-diary study (both partners reporting), within-person analysis 173 romantic couples (346 partners) over 14 days
Daily Technology Interruptions and Emotional and Relational Well-Being
Brandon T. McDaniel, Michelle Drouin · Computers in Human Behavior, 2019
In a 14-day dyadic diary of 173 couples, on days with more technoference than usual partners felt worse about their relationship, rated face-to-face interactions as less positive, perceived more technology conflict and reported more negative mood — even after controlling for baseline dissatisfaction, depression and attachment anxiety, with no gender differences.
Woven into Screens Between Us
- multi-dataset dyadic longitudinal (six datasets) with Dyadic Response Surface Analysis 562 couples across six longitudinal dyadic datasets
Differing Levels of Gratitude Between Romantic Partners: Concurrent and Longitudinal Links With Satisfaction and Commitment in Six Dyadic Datasets
Yoobin Park, Amie Gordon, Sarah Humberg, Amy Muise, Emily A. Impett · Personality Science, 2023
Across six longitudinal dyadic datasets (562 couples), more grateful partners were more satisfied and committed at baseline and more committed over time regardless of how grateful the other partner was, and matching each other's level of gratitude added no benefit beyond each partner's own gratitude.
Woven into The Long Relationship
- multiwave naturalistic longitudinal (mean ~6.5 waves before and ~8 after each event; spans 6–40 months) over 4,000 adults (average n ≈ 392 per life event)
Do life events lead to enduring changes in adult attachment styles? A naturalistic longitudinal investigation
R. Chris Fraley, Omri Gillath, Pascal R. Deboeck · Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 2021
Following over 4,000 adults across many waves, half of the life events studied (new relationships, breakups, job changes, etc.) shifted attachment style immediately, but people mostly drifted back to their pre-event trajectory, with enduring change on average after only about a quarter of events — and how a person construed the event (positive vs negative) predicted whether the change stuck.
Woven into Attachment, Grown Up
- meta-analysis (25 studies) plus secondary analysis of a community couples dataset 25 studies
Does a Long-Term Relationship Kill Romantic Love?
Bianca P. Acevedo, Arthur Aron · Review of General Psychology, 2009
A meta-analysis of 25 studies found that romantic love stripped of obsession (intensity, engagement, sexual interest) was strongly associated with relationship satisfaction in both short- and long-term relationships, whereas the obsessive component was positively linked to satisfaction early on but negatively in long-term relationships.
Woven into The Long Relationship
- three samples, a priori (preregistered) predictions, longitudinal across early weeks and ensuing months of the pandemic N = 2,193 cohabiting individuals, including 476 couples
Feeling Appreciated Buffers Against the Negative Effects of Unequal Division of Household Labor on Relationship Satisfaction
Amie M. Gordon, Emily Cross, Esra Ascigil, Rhonda Balzarini, Anna Luerssen, Amy Muise · Psychological Science, 2022
In three pandemic-era samples (N = 2,193, including 476 couples), doing more of the housework and seeing the split as unfair predicted lower relationship satisfaction over the following weeks and months, but those effects disappeared when people felt appreciated by their partner, regardless of who did more and across gender, age, employment and relationship length.
Woven into After the Baby
- five-year longitudinal study, 11 survey waves (2007–2012), opposite-sex couples 485 adults (67.8% women, mean age 27.1)
Thinking about Moving in Together? Reasons for Cohabitation are Associated with Relationship Outcomes Over Time
Claire L. Chapman, Daphne Y. Liu, Scott M. Stanley, Galena K. Rhoades · Couple and Family Psychology: Research and Practice, 2025
Over five years and 11 waves (N = 485), moving in 'to test the relationship' predicted lower satisfaction, more negative communication, lower dedication and higher break-up odds, while moving in 'to spend more time together' predicted the reverse and 'convenience' predicted nothing — with reasons reflecting pre-existing quality rather than changing the post-cohabitation trajectory.
Woven into Cohabitation
What changed on each page
- The Long Relationship Field Guide gained Acevedo 2009, Bühler 2021, Gable 2004, Joel 2020, Muise 2016, Park 2023
- Cohabitation Atlas gained Chapman 2025, Rosenfeld 2019, Stanley 2006
- The Science of Desire Field Guide gained Joel 2020, Kim 2021, Muise 2016
- Screens Between Us Field Guide gained Kowal 2025, McDaniel 2019, Ni 2025
- After the Baby Field Guide gained Bühler 2021, Gordon 2022
- Attachment, Grown Up Field Guide gained Fraley 2021, Joel 2020
- Why Them Field Guide gained Eastwick 2014, Joel 2020
- Love in the Age of the Algorithm Field Guide gained Eastwick 2014, Kowal 2025