Examining Relationship-Level Predictors of Individual-Level Health in Long Distance Relationships

Long distance relationships (LDR) are increasingly common, particularly among postsecondary students. The geographic separation inherent in LDR, and related relationship factors, may have implications for the health of individuals in LDR. However, little current work examines these potential associations. The current study examined associations between relationship-level predictors (satisfaction, stress, maintenance) and individual-level health (e.g., anxiety, depression, sleep disturbance, fatigue) and health behaviors (e.g., alcohol and cigarette use, sex) in LDR. Participants ( N = 100) were postsecondary students and romantic partners of postsecondary students, recruited from October 2018–June 2019, who completed an online survey on relationships and health. Here, we report sample characteristics; correlations between key study variables; and, results of stepwise hierarchical regressions testing whether relationship-level variables predicted individual-level health. Results indicated that relationship satisfaction and relationship stress predicted self-reported health in multiple domains, in the expected directions; but, neither relationship satisfaction nor relationship stress predicted health behaviors. Relationship maintenance predicted neither self-reported health nor health behaviors. Overall, some, but not all, relationship-level variables influenced some, but not all, individual-level health variables among postsecondary students and partners of postsecondary students in LDR. Future work can clarify relationship-level predictors of individual-level health behaviors in postsecondary students, among whom LDR are prevalent.

Long-distance texting: Text messaging is linked with higher relationship satisfaction in long-distance relationships

Due to the widespread use of smartphones, romantic couples can connect with their partners from virtually anywhere, at any time. Remote communication may be particularly important to long-distance relationships (LDRs), compared to geographically close relationships (GCRs). The goals of the current research were to examine differences between LDRs and GCRs in (1) the patterns of remote communication (video calls, voice calls, and texting), and (2) how frequency and responsiveness of remote communication are related to relationship satisfaction. Data were drawn from an online survey of emerging adults ( n = 647) who were in a relationship or dating someone (36.5% were in an LDR). Participants in LDRs engaged in more frequent video calling, voice calling and texting, compared to those in GCRs. Long-distance relationship participants also perceived their partners to be more responsive during video and voice calls, compared to GCR participants. More frequent and responsive texting predicted significantly greater relationship satisfaction among participants in LDRs, but not GCRs. Meanwhile, frequency of voice calls was associated with greater relationship satisfaction in GCRs, but not in LDRs. The use of video calls was not significantly related to relationship satisfaction in either group. Overall, study findings add to a growing literature on remote communication in romantic couples and suggest a uniquely positive role of texting within LDRs. Further research is needed to examine the ways in which LDR and GCR couples can best capitalize on different forms of remote technology to maintain their relationships during periods of separation.

Relationship Quality in Early Adult Individuals That Are in Long-Distance Relationships

Technological advances make communication easier for couples who have long-distance relationships. The quality of the relationship between a couple who being apart and being together is not necessarily the same, especially when it comes to intimacy. This study aims to determine the quality of relationships in early adults who undergo long-distance relationships. The qualitative research method was chosen with a case study approach that focuses on how the individual interacts in long-distance relationships. Data collection techniques in this study using interviews. The subjects of this study were 2 early adult couples who had a long-distance relationship between Surabaya and outside Surabaya and the couple had been in a relationship for at least 1 year. The data analysis technique used in this research is thematic analysis technique theory driven. The results indicate that respondent 1 shows relationship satisfaction despite feeling uncomfortable with the relationship being undertake. Respondent 2 showed relationship satisfaction but not appreciate his partner's achievements. From these results can be concluded that the quality of the relationship of each partner who has a long-distance relationship is different.

Distinguishing intergroup and long-distance relationships

While intergroup relationships (IRs) dominate the literature on human sociality, long-distance relationships (LDRs) are also highly prevalent in human social life; however, they are often conflated with IRs or overlooked entirely. We suggest that by focusing on IRs to the exclusion of LDRs, scholars are painting an incomplete picture of human sociality. Though both IRs and LDRs function to provide resource access, LDRs likely evolved before IRs in the human lineage and are especially effective for both responding to widespread resource shortfalls and providing access to resources not locally available. To illustrate the importance of distinguishing IRs from LDRs, we draw on an example from rural Bolivia. This case study illustrates how (1) IRs and LDRs vary in importance, even between nearby communities, due to differences in socioecology and past experience, and (2) researcher expectations about IR prevalence can bias both data collection and data interpretation. We close by highlighting areas of LDR research that will expand our understanding of human sociality.

Judgment and Decision Making

Everyday life is comprised of a series of decisions, from choosing what to wear to deciding what major to declare in college and whom to share a life with. Modern era economic theories were first brought into psychology in the 1950s and 1960s by Ward Edwards and Herbert Simon. Simon suggested that individuals do not always choose the best alternative among the options because they are bounded by cognitive limitations (e.g., memory). People who choose the good-enough option “satisfice” rather than optimize, because they are bounded by their limited time, knowledge, and computational capacity. Daniel Kahneman and Amos Tversky were among those who took the next step by demonstrating that individuals are not only limited but are inconsistent in their preferences, and hence irrational. Describing a series of biases and fallacies, they elaborated intuitive strategies (i.e., heuristics) that people tend to use when faced with difficult questions (e.g., “What proportion of long-distance relationships break up within a year?”) by answering based on simpler, similar questions (e.g., “Do instances of swift breakups of long-distance relationships come readily to mind?”). More recently, the emotion-versus-reason debate has been incorporated into the field as an approach to how judgments can be governed by two fundamentally different processes, such as intuition (or affect) and reasoning (or deliberation). A series of dual-process approaches by Seymour Epstein, George Lowenstein, Elke Weber, Paul Slovic, and Ellen Peters, among others, attempt to explain how a decision based on emotional and/or impulsive judgments (i.e., system 1) should be distinguished from those that are based on a slow process that is governed by rules of reasoning (i.e., system 2). Valerie Reyna and Charles Brainerd and other scholars take a different approach to dual processes and propose a theory—fuzzy-trace theory—that incorporates many of the prior theoretical elements but also introduces the novel concept of gist mental representations of information (i.e., essential meaning) shaped by culture and experience. Adding to processes of emotion or reward sensitivity and reasoning or deliberation, fuzzy-trace theory characterizes gist as insightful intuition (as opposed to crude system 1 intuition) and contrasts it with verbatim or precise processing that does not consist of meaningful interpretation. Some of these new perspectives explain classic paradoxes and predict new effects that allow us to better understand human judgment and decision making. More recent contributions to the field include research in neuroscience, in particular from neuroeconomics.

Lithic industries, territory and mobility in the western Linear Pottery Culture

Territory is a complex notion whose definition varies depending on the discipline in which it is applied. Research on the notion of territory has often focused on the Palaeolithic. Studies in this field are mainly based on comparisons between archaeological assemblages and ethnographic data, an approach originating from the work of L.R. Binford, who introduced the concept of mobility, leading to various models of spatial occupation. How have researchers approached the notion of territory with regard to the first mixed farming populations of the Linear Pottery Culture in the Seine Basin and neighbouring regions? Can lithic industries contribute to our understanding of how these first sedentary populations perceived their territory? In this paper, we show that these first Neolithic communities likely obtained their siliceous materials via direct procurement strategies across a territory that they knew well and regularly frequented. In our study area, centred around the Rhine-Meuse region and the Seine Basin, two distinct litho-spaces are comprised of: 1) small numbers of minor territories with local resources, and 2) vast territories requiring greater mobility among the groups that occupied them. Furthermore, the procurement strategies of the occupants of the regions with few siliceous resources seem to have been based on long-distance relationships and networks. In this case, a high degree of mobility and ensuing social relations would have contributed to the attractivity of villages.