Interdependencies between family and friends in daily life: Personality differences and associations with affective well-being across the lifespan

Abstract

Family and friends are central to human life and well-being. Most people maintain both family and friendship relationships and these relationships might show interdependencies that have scarcely been addressed. We examined the relative frequency of daily contact with family and friends (i.e. friends/family-contact) and its link with personality traits and affective well-being. In an experience sampling study with 396 participants ( Mage= 40 years, range 14–88 years, 52% females), we studied how friends/family-contact was associated with Big Five traits and affective well-being across six daily measurements on nine days (average of 55 assessments). Most participants reported more daily contact with family than friends (i.e. held a family orientation), but individual differences were substantial, moderately stable over time, and largely independent from Big Five traits. With advancing age, participants were relatively more often with friends than family. Furthermore, participants were happier when they were with friends compared to family, and this effect was even stronger with higher extraversion. We discuss how examining friends/family-contact extends previous knowledge on personality differences in social relationships, and how this concept yields promising, yet challenging, future directions in personality-relationship associations.

Well-being in social interactions: Examining personality-situation dynamics in face-to-face and computer-mediated communication.

“…Confirming previous research, individuals across all studies reported the highest momentary well-being after interactions with close peers (Buijs et al, 2022; Kahneman et al, 2004; Quoidbach et al, 2019; Vogel et al, 2017). Interactions with family members and weak ties were also related to higher well-being within persons.…”

“…Empirical studies comparing the effects of different interaction partners found that interactions with strong ties were associated with more positive affect than interactions with weak ties (e.g., Venaglia & Lemay, 2017). Within the category of strong ties, interactions with friends (a large subgroup of the category close peers ) were associated with more positive affect than interactions with family members (Buijs et al, 2022; Kahneman et al, 2004; Quoidbach et al, 2019; Vogel et al, 2017). One possible explanation for this finding is that interactions with friends are more reciprocal and voluntary in nature and typically involve more fun leisure activities and less everyday duties than interactions with family members (Hudson et al, 2020; Larson et al, 1986; Vogel et al, 2017).…”

Well-Being in Social Interactions: Examining Personality-Situation Dynamics in Face-to-Face and Computer-Mediated Communication

“…Confirming previous research, individuals across all studies reported the highest momentary well-being after interactions with close peers (Buijs et al, 2022;Kahnemann et al, 2004;Quoidbach et al, 2019;Vogel et al, 2017). Interactions with family members and weak ties were also related to higher well-being within persons.…”

Extraversion, social interactions, and well-being during the COVID-19 pandemic: Did extraverts really suffer more than introverts?

“…On the basis of these results, decreases in the proportion of interactions with friends may be linked to lower well-being. In addition, previous research has suggested that more extraverted individuals profit comparatively more strongly from interactions with friends than from interactions with other interaction partners (Buijs et al, 2023). Thus, more extraverted individuals could suffer more from a reduction in interactions with friends than less extraverted individuals.…”