Recent meta-analytic research suggests that the absence of pessimism is a stronger predictor of health than the presence of optimism (Scheier et al., 2021). Based on these findings, the present study examined the role of subjective well-being in the health effects of optimism and pessimism in romantic couples. It was expected that pessimism would be more strongly associated with both well-being and health than optimism, intra-and inter-personally. In addition, subjective well-being was hypothesized to mediate the health effects of optimism and pessimism. The study included two waves of data obtained from 153 opposite-sex couples. Selfreport indicators of optimism, pessimism, subjective well-being, and health were assessed across waves. Cross-sectional and longitudinal actor-partner interdependence models showed that only the absence of pessimism, but not the presence of optimism, was associated with high levels and improvements in health (e.g., subjective health, sleep-efficiency, cold symptoms, chronic disease). In addition, pessimism was a stronger predictor than optimism of levels in some indicators of subjective well-being (e.g., negative affect, depressive symptoms). These effects were obtained intra-and inter-personally. Finally, levels of subjective well-being statistically mediated the effects of pessimism on levels and changes in health. The study's results suggest that subjective well-being could represent a pathway that explains differential associations between pessimism and optimism with health, both intra-and inter-personally.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.