A meta-analytic review of relationship maintenance and its correlates
Abstract
This meta-analysis examines the five factors from the Relational Maintenance Strategies Measure (RMSM, i.e., positivity, openness, assurances, social networks, and sharing tasks) and their associations with satisfaction, commitment, control mutuality, love, liking, and relationship duration. Across 35 studies (N = 12,273 participants), results showed positive correlations between the maintenance factors and the relational correlates except relationship duration, which was negatively associated with positivity and assurances and unassociated with openness, social networks, and sharing tasks. Moderator analyses showed differences in effect sizes depending upon measure (i.e., RMSM or a revision), reporter (i.e., perceptions of partner’s maintenance or individuals’ own enactment of maintenance), and biological sex. Effect sizes were generally larger for women than men and when studies used the RMSM and perceptions of the partner’s maintenance.
Get full access to this article
View all access and purchase options for this article.
References
*Aylor B., Dainton M. (2004). Biological sex and psychological gender as predictors of routine and strategic relational maintenance. Sex Roles, 50, 689–697.
Ayres J. (1983). Strategies to maintain relationships: Their identification and perceived usage. Communication Quarterly, 31, 62–67.
*Badr H., Carmack Taylor C. L. (2008). Effects of relationship maintenance on psychological distress and dyadic adjustment among couples coping with lung cancer. Health Psychology, 27, 616–627.
*Ballard-Reisch D., Weigel D., Zaguidoulline M. (1999). Relational maintenance behaviors, marital satisfaction, and commitment in Tatar, Russian, and mixed Russian-Tatar marriages. Journal of Family Issues, 20, 677–697.
Braiker H., Kelley H. (1979). Conflict in the development of close relationships. In Burgess R., Huston T. (Eds.), Social exchange in developing relationships (pp. 135–168). New York, NY: Academic Press.
Canary D. J. (2011). On babies, bathwater, and absolute claims: Reply to Stafford. Journal of Social and Personal Relationships, 28, 304–311.
*Canary D., Stafford L. (1992). Relationship maintenance strategies and equity in marriage. Communication Monographs, 59, 243–267.
*Canary D., Stafford L. (1993). Preservation of relational characteristics: Maintenance strategies, equity, and locus of control. In Kalbfleisch P. J. (Ed.), Interpersonal communication: Evolving interpersonal relationships (pp. 237–259). Hillsdale, NJ: LEA.
*Canary D., Stafford L. (2001). Equity in the preservation of personal relationships. In Harvey J. H., Wenzel A. (Eds.), Close romantic relationships: Maintenance and enhancement (pp. 133–151). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
Canary D. J., Stafford L., Hause K. S., Wallace L. A. (1993). An inductive analysis of relational maintenance strategies: Comparisons among lovers, relatives, friends, and others. Communication Research Reports, 10, 1993, 5–14.
*Canary D., Stafford L., Semic B. (2002). A panel study of the associations between maintenance strategies and relational characteristics. Journal of Marriage and the Family, 64, 395–406.
Canary D. J., Wahba J. (2006). Do women work harder than men at maintaining relationships? In Dindia K., Canary D. J. (Eds.), Sex differences and similarities in communication (2nd ed., pp. 359–377). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
Card N. (2011). Applied meta-analysis for social science research. New York, NY: Guilford.
*Cohen H. (1998). Adult attachment styles, romantic love, and the maintenance of love relationships. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, Indiana University, Indiana.
Cohen J. (1977). Statistical power analysis for the behavioral sciences (Rev. ed.). New York, NY: Academic Press.
*Dailey R. M., Hampel A. D., Roberts J. B. (2010). Relational maintenance in on-again/off-again relationships: An assessment of how relational maintenance, uncertainty, and commitment vary by relationship type and status. Communication Monographs, 77, 75–101.
*Dainton M. (2000). Maintenance behaviors, expectations for maintenance, and satisfaction: Linking comparison levels to relational maintenance strategies. Journal of Social and Personal Relationships, 17, 827–842.
Dainton M. (2008). The use of relationship maintenance behaviors as a mechanism to explain the decline in marital satisfaction among parents. Communication Reports, 20, 33–45.
*Dainton M., Aylor B. (2001). A relational uncertainty analysis of jealousy, trust, and the maintenance of long-distance versus geographically-close relationships. Communication Quarterly, 49, 172–188.
*Dainton M., Aylor B. (2002). Routine and strategic maintenance efforts: Behavioral patterns, variations associated with relational length, and the prediction of relational characteristics. Communication Monographs, 69, 52–66.
Dainton M., Stafford L. (1993). Routine maintenance behaviors: A comparison of relationship type, partner similarity and sex differences. Journal of Social and Personal Relationships, 10, 255–271.
*Dainton M., Stafford L. (2000). Predicting maintenance enactment from relational schemata, spousal behavior, and relational characteristics. Communication Research Reports, 17, 171–180.
*Dainton M., Stafford L., Canary D. (1994). Maintenance strategies and physical affection as predictors of love, liking, and satisfaction in marriage. Communication Reports, 7, 88–98.
Dindia K. (2000). Relational maintenance. In Hendrick C., Hendrick S. S. (Eds.), Close relationships: A sourcebook (pp. 287–299). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
Dindia K. (2003). Definitions and perspectives on relational maintenance communication. In Canary D., Dainton M. (Eds.), Maintaining relationships through communication (pp. 1–28). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.
Dindia K., Baxter L. (1987). Strategies for maintaining and repairing marital relationships. Journal of Social and Personal Relationships, 4, 143–158.
Dindia K., Canary D. J. (1993). Definitions and theoretical perspectives on maintaining relationships. Journal of Social and Personal Relationships, 10, 163–173.
*Eden J. (2011). Relationship maintenance study data. Unpublished raw data.
*Gutierrez V. (2004). Maintenance behaviors and conflict level, areas, and resolution strategies in same-sex couples. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, University of California, California.
Haas S. M., Stafford L. (2005). Maintenance behaviors in same-sex and marital relationships: A matched sample comparison. Journal of Family Communication, 5, 43–60.
*Jackson D. (2010). Equity, maintenance behaviors, and relational satisfaction in distressed partners. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, Arizona State University, Arizona.
Johnson M. (1991). Commitment to personal relationships. In Jones W. H., Perlman D. (Eds.), Advances in personal relationships (Vol. 3, pp. 117–143). London: Jessica Kingsley.
*Johnson S. L. (2009). Individual and interdependent analyses of relational maintenance, sexual communication, and marital quality. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, Arizona State University, Arizona.
Kelley H., Thibaut J. (1978). Interpersonal relations: A theory of interdependence, New York, NY: Wiley.
*Kerkof P., Finkenauer C., Muusses L. D. (2011). Relational consequences of compulsive Internet use: A longitudinal study among newlyweds. Human Communication, 37, 147–173.
Knudson R. M., Sommers A. A., Golding S. L. (1980). Interpersonal perception and mode of resolution in marital conflict. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 38, 751–763.
Le B., Dove N., Agnew C., Korn M., Mutso A. (2010). Predicting nonmarital romantic relationship dissolution: A meta-analytic synthesis. Personal Relationships, 17, 377–390.
*Le B. L., Korn M. S., Crockett E. E., Loving T. J. (2010). Missing you maintains us: Missing a romantic partner, relationship maintenance, commitment, and physical infidelity. Journal of Social and Personal Relationships, 28, 653–657.
*Lee E. (2006). Relationship maintenance behaviors in marital couples. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, The Claremont Graduate University, California.
*Maguire K. C., Kinney T. A. (2010). When distance is problematic: Communication, coping, and relational satisfaction in female college students’ long-distance dating relationships. Journal of Applied Communication Research, 28, 27–46.
Messman S. J., Canary D. J., Hause K. S. (2000). Motives to remain platonic equity, and the use of maintenance strategies in opposite-sex friendships. Journal of Social and Personal Relationships, 17, 67–94.
Morton T. C., Alexander J. F., Altman I. (1976). Communication in Relationship Definition. In Miller G. R. (Ed.), Explorations in Interpersonal Communication (pp. 105–125). Beverly Hills, CA: Sage.
Ogolsky B. (2009). Deconstructing the association between relationship maintenance and commitment: Testing two competing models. Personal Relationships, 16, 99–115.
Oswald D. L., Clark E. M. (2006). How do friendship maintenance behaviors and problem solving styles function at the individual and dyadic levels? Personal Relationships, 13, 333–348.
*Rabby M. (2001). Commitment and relational maintenance in online and offline romantic relationships. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, Arizona State University, Arizona.
*Ragsdale J. (1996). Gender, satisfaction level and the use of relational maintenance strategies in marriage. Communication Monographs, 63, 354–369.
*Ramirez A. (2008). An examination of the tripartite approach to commitment: An actor-partner interdependence model analysis of the effect of relationship maintenance behavior. Journal of Social and Personal Relationships, 25, 943–965.
*Reesing A. (2003). Relationship commitment and its association with relationship maintenance: An application of the commitment framework. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, The University of Arizona, Arizona.
Rosenthal R. (1991). Meta-analytic procedures for social research (Rev. ed.). Newbury Park, CA: Sage.
Rusbult C. (1980). Commitment and satisfaction in romantic associations: A test of the investment model. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 16, 172–186.
Rusbult C. (1983). A longitudinal test of the investment model: The development (and deterioration) of satisfaction and commitment in heterosexual involvements. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 45, 101–117.
Rusbult C. E., Drigotas S. M., Verette J. (1994). The investment model: An interdependence analysis of commitment processes and relationship maintenance phenomena. In Canary D., Stafford L. (Eds.), Communication and relational maintenance (pp. 115–139). New York, NY: Academic Press.
Rusbult C. E., Verette J., Whitney G. A., Slovik L. F., Lipkus I. (1991). Accommodation processes in close relationships: Theory and preliminary empirical evidence. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 60, 53–78.
Stafford L. (2011). Measuring relationship maintenance behaviors: Critique and development of the revised relationship maintenance behaviors scale. Journal of Social and Personal Relationships, 28, 278–303.
*Stafford L., Canary D. J. (1991). Maintenance strategies and romantic relationship type, gender and relational characteristics. Journal of Social and Personal Relationships, 8, 217–242.
*Stafford L., Dainton M., Haas S. (2000). Measuring routine and strategic relational maintenance: Scale revision, sex versus gender roles, and the prediction of relational characteristics. Communication Monographs, 67, 306–323.
*Veckler A. (2011). Relationship maintenance data. Unpublished raw data.
Weigel E. J. (2008). A dyadic assessment of how couples indicate their commitment to each other. Personal Relationships,15, 17–39.
*Weigel D., Ballard-Reisch D. (1999a). All marriages are not maintained equally: Marital type, marital quality, and the use of maintenance behaviors. Personal Relationships, 6, 291–303.
*Weigel D., Ballard-Reisch D. (1999b). How couples maintain marriages: A closer look at self and spouse influences upon the use of maintenance behaviors in marriages. Family Relations, 48, 463–269.
*Weigel D., Ballard-Reisch D. (1999c). The influence of marital duration and the use of relationship maintenance behaviors. Communication Reports, 12, 59–70.
Weigel D., Ballard-Reisch D. (1999d). Using paired data to test models of relational maintenance and marital quality. Journal of Social and Personal Relationships, 16, 175–191.
*Weigel D., Ballard-Reisch D. (2001). The impact of relational maintenance behaviors on marital satisfaction: A longitudinal analysis. Journal of Family Communication, 1, 265–279.
*Weigel D. J., Ballard-Reisch D. S. (2008). Relational maintenance, satisfaction, and commitment in marriages: An actor-partner analysis. Journal of Family Communication, 8, 212–229.
Cite
Cite
Cite
OR
Download to reference manager
If you have citation software installed, you can download citation data to the citation manager of your choice
Information, rights and permissions
Information
Published In
Article first published online: November 21, 2012
Issue published: May 2013
Keywords
Authors
Metrics and citations
Metrics
Journals metrics
This article was published in Journal of Social and Personal Relationships.
View All Journal MetricsPublication usage*
Total views and downloads: 4847
*Publication usage tracking started in December 2016
Publications citing this one
Receive email alerts when this publication is cited
Web of Science: 137 view articles Opens in new tab
Crossref: 145
- Reinforcement Learning with Continuous Actions Under Unmeasured Confounding
- Proceedings of the 37th Australian Conference on Human-Computer Interaction
- Even Though the Long Distance: Are We Still Going on? Dyadic Trust, Relationship Maintenance Behaviors, and Relationship Quality Among Emerging Adulthoods
- Personal agency and social connection are associated with loneliness over time
- Relationship Maintenance Knowledge and Self‐Efficacy Among Single Young Adults Desiring a Committed Romantic Relationship
- College Students’ Perceptions Regarding Relationship Maintenance Behaviors with Their Instructors
- Navigating the past and present: Links among family‐of‐origin adversity, secure attachment behaviors, and marital satisfaction
- Meeting partners online is related to lower relationship satisfaction and love: Data from 50 countries
- Prediction Emotional Attachment Based on Relationship Maintenance Strategies and Psychological Hardiness among Substance-Addicted Couples: A Cross-Sectional Study
- Beyond Social Deficits: Personal Agency and Social Connection Shape Loneliness Over Time
- View More
Figures and tables
Figures & Media
Tables
View Options
Access options
If you have access to journal content via a personal subscription, university, library, employer or society, select from the options below:
I am signed in as:
View my profileSign out
I can access personal subscriptions, purchases, paired institutional access and free tools such as favourite journals, email alerts and saved searches.
loading institutional access options
Alternatively, view purchase options below:
Purchase 24 hour online access to view and download content.
Access journal content via a DeepDyve subscription or find out more about this option.