Summary: A new study finds that relationship satisfaction fluctuates frequently—even daily—but these shifts are a normal part of romantic dynamics. Using high-frequency surveys from over 700 couples, researchers found that satisfaction often rises and falls in sync between partners.
These short-term changes can reflect unmet needs, making them useful cues for better communication and emotional awareness. The findings suggest that recognizing and responding to a partner’s needs is key to building stable, fulfilling relationships.
Key Facts:
- Frequent Fluctuations: Relationship satisfaction can shift multiple times within a single day.
- Synchronized Swings: Partners often experience similar ups and downs in satisfaction.
- Needs Matter: Responsiveness to each other’s emotional needs stabilizes satisfaction over time.
Source: Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz
In romantic relationships, the partners’ satisfaction with their relationship can vary considerably over several days and even in the course of a single day. This is the result of a new psychological study on short-term satisfaction in romantic relationships.
“Fluctuations are quite normal. However, they may also indicate unsatisfied needs in the relationship,” said Louisa Scheling of the Institute of Psychology at Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz (JGU), lead author of the corresponding article.
According to Scheling, fluctuations in relationship satisfaction can be a good starting point for partners to talk about their own expectations and, at the same time, become aware of the partner’s needs, thus contributing to an overall improvement in the quality of the relationship.
The study was mainly conducted at JGU and has been published recently in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. Also involved were researchers at Heidelberg University, Brigham Young University in the USA, the University of Basel in Switzerland, and the German Center of Gerontology (DZA) in Berlin.
High-frequency surveys to assess relationship satisfaction
For most individuals, romantic relationships are among the most important relationships in their lives. Relationship satisfaction plays an important role not only for the relationship itself, but also for health outcomes and life satisfaction. In the Western world, however, 30 to 50 percent of marriages end in divorce.
Separation rates among unmarried couples are even higher. In the search for the root causes of this development, research has to date focused primarily on relationship satisfaction over periods of months and years.
“In contrast, we have decided to take a narrow chronological approach to determine how satisfied partners were with their situation over the course of a few days and even within a 24-hour period,” explained Louisa Scheling.
The research team evaluated data from two individual surveys of couples who reported on their individual relationship satisfaction on a daily basis or even several times each day. A total of 593 couples participated in the first survey and 150 couples in the second.
The results of analysis of the data showed that partners experience substantial fluctuations in terms of how satisfied they are with their relationship.
These fluctuations tend to be greater over periods of several days than during a single 24-hour period. Interestingly, the up and down swings of the degree of satisfaction reported turned out to be relatively synchronous for both partners over the course of time.
Mutual recognition of needs contributes to satisfaction
The researchers then considered various possible factors that might affect the outcome, such as age, gender, relationship duration, and attachment style. In fact, the perceived responsiveness of the partner proved to be a key parameter determining the course of satisfaction, while the emotional instability of male partners also had a notable effect.
Louisa Scheling summarizes the findings of this part of the study as follows: “The reliable perception and fulfillment of the partner’s needs contributes significantly to stable relationship satisfaction in everyday life. It’s similar to a parent-child relationship: if needs are consistently met, satisfaction stabilizes at a high level.”
The observed fluctuations in relationship satisfaction can, over the short term, be accompanied by thoughts of separation. Over the longer term, however, these have merely a limited effect on the course of the relationship over time.
“It is possible that fluctuations in relationship satisfaction tend on the whole to mimic the current relationship dynamics between partners, rather than predicting the future development of the relationship,” added Scheling.
In her view, the findings of the study can help to support couples and show them, for example in the context of relationship counseling, that fluctuations in relationship satisfaction are normal but may serve as signals that there is room for improvement.
“If this is to work, the partners have to be well aware of their needs and be able to express them clearly,” the psychologist concluded.
About this psychology and relationships research news
Author: Kathrin Voigt
Source: Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz
Contact: Kathrin Voigt – Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz
Image: The image is credited to Neuroscience News
Original Research: Closed access.
“Within-person variability and couple synchrony in state relationship satisfaction: Testing predictors and implications” by Louisa Scheling et al. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology
Abstract
Within-person variability and couple synchrony in state relationship satisfaction: Testing predictors and implications
To better understand romantic relationship development, research has focused on how trait relationship satisfaction develops across months and years.
However, because romantic relationships evolve in daily life, it is critical to also examine state relationship satisfaction and its fluctuations across and within days.
In this preregistered study, we examined how strongly romantic partners vary in their state relationship satisfaction (within-person variability) and how synchronous they are in their variability (couple synchrony).
Moreover, we focused on predictors (demographic, personality, and relationship characteristics) and implications (trait relationship satisfaction, stability) of variability and synchrony.
We used two dyadic data sets of female–male couples, including 593 couples in Study 1 and 150 couples in Study 2.
State relationship satisfaction was assessed daily in a multiwave diary study (Study 1) and multiple times a day in an experience sampling study (Study 2).
The results of dynamic structural equation modeling indicated that individuals varied significantly in their state relationship satisfaction, with higher variability across than within days, and that couple synchrony was moderate to high.
Key predictors of variability were both partners’ perceived responsiveness and men’s neuroticism, while the main predictor of couple synchrony was women’s perceived responsiveness.
Higher variability was related to lower trait relationship satisfaction, but variability and synchrony had no long-term implications for relationship satisfaction and stability.
Together, these findings provide a granular view on romantic relationships, suggesting that variability in state relationship satisfaction is common to most romantic relationships.
High variability, however, may be an indicator of unmet needs in the relationship.
