Romantic Relationships and Mental Health: Investigating the Role of Self-Expansion on Depression Symptoms

Abstract

Close relationships have the potential to fundamentally alter relationship partners’ self-concepts and, consequently, can impact individuals’ mental health. One type of relationship-induced self-concept change is self-expansion, which describes the cognitive reorganization of the self that can occur when individuals include aspects of their partner into the self, or when they share novel and challenging activities together. In the current research, we hypothesized that greater self-expansion would be associated with fewer depression symptoms. In support of this hypothesis, across four studies using cross-sectional, dyadic, daily diary, and longitudinal methodologies, we found that self-expansion was negatively associated with depression symptoms. This association was robust and remained a significant predictor of depression symptoms when controlling for demographic factors (gender, age, relationship length; Studies 1–4) and known risk factors of depression (dysfunctional attitudes, major life stressors, self-concept clarity; Study 2). Moreover, individuals’ self-expansion negatively predicted depression symptoms at the daily level (Study 3) and longitudinally over 9 months (Study 4). These results are the first to show the link between self-expansion and depression symptoms, suggesting that self-expansion may have robust benefits for individuals, beyond improving relationship dynamics.

The Link between the Nature of the Human–Companion Animal Relationship and Well-Being Outcomes in Companion Animal Owners

“…This positive relationship extends beyond simply feeling better to encompassing reductions in poor mental health. Self-expansion can reduce depressive symptoms directly [39]. It can also help improve and clarify the self-concept [40,41], which is associated with lower levels of anxiety and depression [42].…”

Self-expansion perceptions and behaviors uniquely contribute to relationship quality over time.

“…Similarly, much is known about the relationship outcomes associated with partners’ beliefs about how self-expanding their relationship is currently. Current self-expansion perceptions have been linked to greater relationship quality, lower interest in alternative romantic partners, and fewer depression symptoms (e.g., Harasymchuk et al, 2020; McIntyre et al, 2023; VanderDrift et al, 2011). Thus, maintaining and capitalizing on opportunities for self-expansion is pertinent to sustaining long-term romantic relationships.…”

The Associations between Human–Companion Animal Relationship Duration, Companion Animal Life Stage, and Relationship Quality

“…There are two main aspects of the self-expansion model: (1) humans are motivated to self-expand in order to increase self-efficacy and reach their goals and (2) they do so typically through developing and maintaining close relationships with others and integrating close others into their sense of self [9]. In human-human relationships, self-expansion can contribute to greater feelings of self-efficacy [10], greater positive self-concept [11,12], and better mental well-being [13,14]. Self-expansion also contributes to better relationship quality and more relationship satisfaction [15].…”