Common dyadic coping buffers low commitment

Commitment in a relationship influences relationship maintenance and functioning but also everyday behavior. Dyadic coping relates to how couples cope together with stress. Both dyadic coping and commitment focus on we-ness, although commitment represents an attitude and dyadic coping a pattern of behavior. Yet it is not known if and how commitment and dyadic coping interact in their effects on relationship satisfaction. The current study aims to examine the association between commitment and relationship satisfaction, moderated by dyadic coping. Questionnaire data were collected as part of the PASEZ study and 368 couples participated. Results showed that commitment and dyadic coping were both relevant predictors of relationship satisfaction. However, the interaction term accounted for higher explanation of the variance of relationship satisfaction. As expected, dyadic coping moderated the link between commitment and relationship satisfaction in men and women of the middle-aged cohort and elderly women. For couples with low dyadic coping, commitment is much more important for their relationship satisfaction than for those couples who report high dyadic coping. The findings support the assertion that commitment plays an important role not only for relationship stability in the longer run, but also for relationship satisfaction and that common dyadic coping moderates this association. This implies for clinicians to investigate whether couples who seek couple therapy or attend a relationship education workshop, need to work on their commitment, dyadic coping or both.