The Williamson Lab has a new paper published in Journal of Social and Personal Relationships, alongside collaborators Inmaculada Valor-Segura and María Alonso-Ferres at the University of Granada. Using demographically stratified national samples from the U.S. (n = 1,004) and Spain (n = 969), we examined whether relationship quality predicts life satisfaction, physical health, and mental health above and beyond socioeconomic status. In both countries, relationship satisfaction and perceived partner responsiveness were robustly associated with all three outcomes, even after accounting for income, education, and subjective social status. Objective SES showed a different pattern across contexts: education predicted outcomes consistently in the U.S. but not in Spain, potentially reflecting the two countries’ different healthcare systems. Together, the findings suggest that close relationships are an independent pathway to health which holds up regardless of socioeconomic circumstances or national context.
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