The contribution of Valued Living and Committed Action to explain Couple Satisfaction in Emerging Adults

Introduction: Psychological Flexibility (PF) has been defined as the ability to contact the present moment more fully as a conscious human being, and to persist or change behavior in the service of chosen life values. A large body of research has consistently showed that PF is associated with improved physical, social and emotional functioning. PF is suggested to comprise several processes including mindfulness, values, and committed action. In recent years there has been growing interest in the PF model to explain couple satisfaction. In this context, research to date has predominantly focussed on mindfulness, with findings consistently linking mindfulness to higher relationship satisfaction. By contrast, the contribution of other PF processes to relationship outcomes has been largely neglected. This study explored the contribution of valued living and committed action to explain couple satisfaction in a sample of emerging adults. Methods: Participants were 229 young adults between 18 and 31 years old (M = 22.26, DS = 2.97) involved in a dating relationship of at least three weeks duration. Subjects completed self-report measures of mindfulness (the Kentucky Inventory of Mindfulness Skills that assesses four mindfulness facets: “Observing”, “Describing”, “Acceptance” and “Acting with Awareness”), valued living (Valued Living Questionnaire), committed action (Committed Action Questionnaire) and couple satisfaction (Romantic Relationship Quality Scale). Results: Higher scores in the “Observing” and the “Acting with Awareness” facets of mindfulness were associated with higher relationship satisfaction. As expected, both valued living and committed action did positively correlate with relationship satisfaction. The results from Hierarchical Regression Analyses showed that valued living and committed action added a significant increment of explained variance to predict couple satisfaction, above and beyond background characteristics and measures of mindfulness. Discussion: Findings from this study support the incremental validity of an engaged response style, as conceptualized in the PF model, to explain couple satisfaction independently of mindfulness skills. These results suggest that when young adults are in contact with their chosen values through valued actions in everyday life they may experience a deeper sense of connection and intimacy with their partners and higher couple satisfaction. Conclusions: The engaged response style seems to play a unique role in the relationship satisfaction beyond similar and related theoretical processes such as mindfulness.