Effect Of Should-be Beliefs Of Intimate Relationship On Love Satisfaction Among College Students

With the rise of cognitive research in the field of intimacy,beliefs of intimate relationship have become the focus of research.Sometimes,we spontaneously think what he or she should do in intimate relationship,thus,this study proposes a new concept of should-be beliefs of intimate relationship,and mainly explores the effect of should-be beliefs of intimate relationship on love satisfaction,and the mediation mechanism of coping styles of conflicts between them.The results of this current study provide enlightenment for promoting love satisfaction,studies and health personality among college students.The first study aimed to develop the scale of should-be beliefs of intimate relationship in Chinese culture background.We collected the primary items through literature,interviews and open questionnaire,then,we conducted item analysis,exploratory factor analysis and confirmatory factor analysis to screen the initial questionnaire items.Finally,a formal scale consisting of 10 items for male and female respectively was developed.The second study aimed to explore the relationship between the should-be belief of intimate relationship and love satisfaction,after controlling Big-five,attachment types,love relationship beliefs as covariates.201 college students with love experience took part in the survey.We adopted correlation analysis and multiple linear regression analysis.The third study aimed to explore the effects of should-be beliefs of intimate relationship on their own and lover's love satisfaction according to actor partner interdependent model,and the mediating role of coping styles of conflicts.102 pairs of lovers were recruited to participate in this research.Mplus was adopted to analyze the actor effect,the partner effect and mediation effect.The conclusions as follows:(1)The self-developed scales of should-be beliefs of intimate relationship for males and females had good internal consistency and good structural validity respectively.(2)The should-be beliefs of intimate relationship of males were positively related to conscientiousness,agreeableness,openness,extroversion,empathy,irrational belief,and the growth belief in love,but was not related to neuroticism.Should-be beliefs of intimate relationship of females were positively related to all Big-five personalities,empathy,the belief in growth in the relationship,irrational belief.The results indicated two scales had good convergent validity and discriminative validity.(3)After controlling the variables of fatalism belief,growth belief,attachment anxiety,attachment avoidance and agreeableness,both male and female should-be beliefs of intimate relationship could significantly predict their love satisfaction.(4)There was a mediator effect of coping style of avoiding leaving between male should-be beliefs of intimate relationship and male love satisfaction,and there was an actor effect of female should-be beliefs of intimate relationship on her own love satisfaction.In addition,there also was a partner effect of female should-be beliefs of intimate relationship on male love satisfaction.In sum,should-be beliefs of intimate relationship of male and female college students are positively associated with their love satisfaction,and the departing coping style of conflicts played a mediating role between them.The more should-be beliefs of intimate relationship people possess,the less departing coping style they choose,thus,they have higher love satisfaction.Therefore,we need to treat should-be beliefs of intimate relationship with more objective and neutral attitude.The positive communication style plays an important role between should-be beliefs of intimate relationship and love satisfaction.