This research examined 2 age-typical goals that adolescents may pursue in social dating (intimacy goals related to open communication and mutual dependence and identity goals related to self-reliance and self-exploration) and the implications of these different goal sets for responsiveness to educational and daily life situations. Education about safer sexual activity that emphasized interpersonal communication skills was more effective in increasing intentions regarding safer sex for adolescents with predominant intimacy goals in dating, whereas education that focused on technical skills was more effective for those with predominant identity goals. Adolescents were also less likely to engage in risky sexual behavior when they were in dating situations that encouraged goal-relevant activities for ensuring safer sex. Discussion focuses on the dynamics within the broader bidirectional fit between personal goals and situational affordances.
This research examines the association of intimacy goals and marital satisfaction and tests four potential mediators of the goals-satisfaction link. Forty-four married couples completed measures of their own intimacy goals, their perceptions of their spouse’s goals, patterning of marital interactions (e.g., social support, time spent together, number of activities engaged in together, mutual influence), and marital satisfaction. As predicted, both individuals’ own and their spouses’ pursuit of intimacy goals were associated with marital satisfaction. However, these associations between goals and satisfaction were eliminated when individuals’ perceptions of their spouses’ goals were included in the analysis, indicating that the link between intimacy goals and marital satisfaction was mediated by individuals’ perceptions of their spouses’ goals. Discussion focuses on the theoretical and applied implications of these findings.
This study examined the effects of 2 HIV prevention interventions on condom use and mediators of condom use. College students were randomly assigned to a control condition or an intervention (communication skills or technical skills). Those who received either intervention had greater condom use self‐efficacy, more positive condom use attitudes, and stronger intentions to use condoms than did controls. Furthermore, 3‐month follow‐up data revealed that students in either intervention who were not in a steady dating relationship reported more consistent condom use than did those in the control condition, whereas students who were in either intervention and in a relationship reported somewhat less consistent condom use than did those in the control condition. Analyses suggested that effects of the interventions on condom use were mediated by increased intentions to use condoms.
This research extends previous work demonstrating that individuals with intimacy goals experience greater relationship satisfaction by examining three distinct processes that may underlie this association (e.g., engaging in intimacy-conducive interactions with their partners, having intimacy-focused partners, perceiving partners as intimacy focused). The study included 100 female college students who completed measures of intimacy goals, patterns of relationship interaction, perceptions of their partner’s intimacy goals, and relationship satisfaction. Their dating partners also completed the intimacy goals measure. Results indicate that individuals with intimacy goals engage in particular patterns of interaction and perceive their partners as having intimacy goals, although there was no association between own and partner’s goals. Moreover, women’s perceptions of their partners’ intimacy goals partially mediated the intimacy goals-relationship satisfaction link.
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