Romantic Relationships and Mental Health: Investigating the Role of Self-Expansion on Depression Symptoms.

ABSTRACT: Close relationships have the potential to fundamentally alter relationship partners' self-concepts and, consequently, can impact individuals' mental health. One type of relationship-induced self-concept change is self-expansion, which describes the cognitive reorganization of the self that can occur when individuals include aspects of their partner into the self, or when they share novel and challenging activities together. In the current research, we hypothesized that greater self-expansion is associated with fewer depression symptoms. In support of this hypothesis, across four studies using cross-sectional, dyadic, daily diary, and longitudinal methodologies, we found that self-expansion was negatively associated with depressive symptoms. This association was robust and remained a signif

SUBMITTER: McIntyre KP 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12668558 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature