Examining Actor-Partner Effects in the Associations between Dyadic Resilience and Conditions of Relational Turbulence During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Abstract

During the COVID-19 pandemic, individuals, romantic partners, and families wrestled with the challenges of managing day-to-day functioning. Although some couples struggled to manage the pandemic, others worked together to strengthen their relationship and navigate this unknown transition. This study, informed by the communication theory of resilience, offers a dyadic test of relational turbulence theory to explore how resilience can buffer couples’ experiences of turbulence. Specifically, this study examines actors’ and partners’ forms of communicated resilience as predictors of relational uncertainty, interdependence processes, and relational turbulence. The sample included 151 romantic dyads (N = 302) from across the United States who completed weekly surveys over the course of four weeks during the early stages of the pandemic. We analyzed the data using multi-level modeling to document between- and within-person effects for actors and partners. Our results generally support our hypotheses such that, across different types of resilience, both actors’ and partners’ enacted resilience predict actors’ experiences with relational uncertainty, partner interference, partner facilitation, and relational turbulence. We discuss our results in terms of the theoretical utility of the communication theory of resilience and relational turbulence theory and the practical utility of our findings for helping couples manage turmoil associated with COVID-19 and similar crises.