Remembering the past and imagining the future: Partners’ responsiveness in specific events relates to relationship satisfaction and subjective well-being

Attachment theory indicates that romantic partners’ availability and responsiveness provide individuals with a sense of security and the repeated experience of which could have enduring effects on individuals’ subjective well-being and relationship outcomes. We proposed that retrieving episodic memory and episodic simulation related to secure-base support could also help individuals obtain information about partners’ responsiveness, which in turn would promote long-term subjective well-being and relationship satisfaction. To provide the evidence of this notion, the current study investigated the relationship between partner’s responsiveness in episodic memory/simulation of secure-base support and relationship satisfaction as well as subjective well-being. We recruited 136 young adults ( M age = 21.89, SD = 2.57) who were currently involved in a romantic relationship for at least 6 months. Participants completed measures of relationship satisfaction and subjective well-being; then, they provided specific episodic memory and simulations related to secure-base support as well as rated partners’ responsiveness in each event. Results indicated that partners’ responsiveness in both episodic memory and simulations was significantly positively related to participants’ relationship satisfaction and subjective well-being. These results provide novel implications for the function of episodic memory and episodic simulation of secure-base support in the attachment system.

How leader secure-base support facilitates hotel employees’ promotive and prohibitive voices

PurposeThis study aims to extend the prior literature on voice behavior by integrating leader secure-base support, psychological capital (PsyCap) and regulatory foci with promotive and prohibitive voices. The current research draws on the notions of the proactive motivation model and regulatory focus to provide insights into why and when the influences of PsyCap on a certain type of voice are determined by its relevant regulatory focus.Design/methodology/approachThis study uses a sample of 278 supervisor–subordinate dyads from Taiwan hotels. Hypothesis tests were conducted using AMOS 21.0 and the SPSS application PROCESS (Hayes, 2013).FindingsThe current study determined that PsyCap mediated the positive relationships between leader secure-base support and two types of voices. Promotion focus moderated the relationships between PsyCap and promotive voice and the indirect effect of leader secure-base support on promotive voice. This indirect relationship is more pronounced when promotion focus is low than when it is high.Research limitations/implicationsThis study has a few implications for future research. First, the use of PsyCap to explain the voice behavior of employees may extend the application of the proactive motivation model. Second, leader secure-base support should be viewed as a promising leadership behavior owing to its value as a PsyCap predictor. Third, results show that PsyCap can mediate the relationship between such support and two types of voices. Finally, incorporating the concept of ecological congruence provides improved insights into the role of regulatory foci.Originality/valueFirst, this study extends the notions of the proactive motivation model by elucidating the effects of PsyCap on promotive and prohibitive voices. Second, our findings indicate that leader secure-base support can enhance PsyCap, which in turn facilitate voice behaviors in hotel work settings. Finally, his study contributes to theory of regulatory focus by integrating the notion of Hobfoll’s (1998) ecological congruence to explain how each of the promotion and prevention focus can determine the path from PsyCap to different types of voices.

Perceptions of parental secure base support in African American adolescents and young adults

Within the field of relationship science there is increasing interest in the connections between close relationships and physical health. In the present study, we examined whether adolescents’ (∼12 years old) and young adults’ (∼20 years old) perceptions of their parents as a secure base prospectively predict C-reactive protein (CRP), a commonly used marker of inflammatory activity, at age 32 in a well-characterized sample of African Americans. We utilized existing data collected as part of the Maryland Adolescent Development in Context Study (MADICS) to construct measures of perceptions of parental secure base support (SBS), general parental support, and peer support in early adolescence and early adulthood. In the present study, SBS was operationalized as the perceived ability to depend on parents in times of need. Fifty-nine African American MADICS participants who reported on perceived support in early adolescence and early adulthood participated in a follow-up home visit at age 32 during which serum CRP was measured via a blood draw. After controlling for inflammation-related confounds (e.g., tobacco use, body mass index), adolescents’ perceptions of parental SBS, but not peer support or general parental support, predicted lower CRP values at age 32 ( b = −.92, SE = .34, p < .05). None of the support variables in early adulthood predicted CRP at 32 years. This study adds to a growing literature on relationships and health-related outcomes and provides the first evidence for a link between parental SBS in adolescence and a marker of inflammatory activity in adulthood.