The Impact of Outside Friendships on Relational Satisfaction for Dating and Married Couples

Authors: Darren M. George*, Daniel Saugh, Skylar Ridderhof, Eva Unger and Matthew Snyder

DOI: 10.23880/pprij-16000350

Volume 8, Issue 3

Abstract

The influence of outside friendship on Couples’ relational satisfaction (RS) was explored with a sample of 444 romantically involved participants from central Alberta. There were, therefore, 222 couples, 89 of the couples were dating or engaged; 133 of the couples were Married or cohabitating. All couples were heterosexual. The primary focus of the study was to identify the relationship between the number and quality of outside friendships and relational satisfaction of the couples. Friendships were divided into three types: unshared (individual) friends, family friends, and shared (mutual) friends. A combination of the George-Wisdom Marital Satisfaction Scale and the Kansas Marital Satisfaction Scale measured relational satisfaction. Results found that the quality of friendships was one of the largest predictors of relational success for both marrieds and dating couples accounting for 37% of the variance for men and 47.5% of the variance for women. Additional results found that individual friendships are a serious liability to couple satisfaction, family and mutual friends are associated with greater couple satisfaction. Finally, in regression analyses the families supporting the relationship and liking the partner were the greatest predictors of relational satisfaction.

Keywords: Outside Friendship; Couple Relational Satisfaction; Individual Friends; Family Friends; Mutual Friends

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