The Association Between Sociotropy – Autonomy and Dyadic Coping with Relationship Commitment as a Potential Moderator

Emerging adulthood (18 – 28 years) is a distinctive period in the life course whereyoung people are involved in the process of transitioning to adult roles in their careers and social relationships. Due to the ongoing COVID- 19 pandemic, economic instability, and other social factors, emerging adults in the United States are experiencing greater stress and challenges than ever before. In this climate of high stress, personal characteristics such as an individual’s propensity to endorse sociotropy (the tendency to focus primarily on relationships) or autonomy (the tendency to focus primarily on the self) may be associated with experiences of stress and resulting depressive feelings based on the diathesis-stress model of depression proposed by Beck in 1967. However, perceived partner’s dyadic coping may buffer against the positive association between stress and depression. Despite this plausible link, not much is known about how personal characteristics (here sociotropy and autonomy) of emerging adults may influence their perceptions of their own as well as partner’s dyadic coping. To address this gap, the present study used survey data from 269 emerging adults to examine whether personal characteristics such as sociotropy and autonomy are associated with their perceptions of dyadic coping and to examine if these associations are moderated by perceived relationship commitment, given commitment has been found to increase relationship maintenance behaviors. Results found that both sociotropy and autonomy were associated positively with positive dyadic coping by self and negatively with negative dyadic coping by partner. Relationship commitment partially moderated these associations. Results of this study have the ability to inform therapy for emerging adults in romantic relationships who may be experiencing higher stress, symptoms of depression, and those who may be experiencing difficulties in their relationships. Limitations and future directions for research are discussed