Psychological distress with relationship satisfaction is moderated by anticipatory relational savoring among non‐deployed military partners

Abstract

AbstractThis study recruited participants whose partners were deployed for active‐duty military service to examine whether anticipatory relational savoring moderated the association of psychological distress with relationship satisfaction. Two weeks prior to their partner's deployment (T1), participants (N = 73) completed a self‐report measure of relationship satisfaction. Then, 2 weeks into their partner's deployment (T2), participants completed self‐report measures of stress, loneliness, and depression (combined into a composite index of psychological distress), and relationship satisfaction. Participants also completed a stream‐of‐consciousness task at T2 in which they imagined and discussed their partner's return from deployment. We coded the stream‐of‐consciousness task for anticipatory relational savoring regarding their upcoming reunion with their deployed partner. We found that anticipatory relational savoring moderated the association of psychological distress with during‐deployment relationship satisfaction after adjusting for demographics, interpersonal variables, and deployment‐specific variables; the association did not hold after adjusting for pre‐deployment relationship satisfaction, and thus was robust when considering the distress‐satisfaction association during the deployment but was not when considering changes in relationship satisfaction from pre‐ to during‐deployment. We discuss the potential importance of anticipatory relational savoring for this unique population.