sexual psycology

Positive Emotional Expression Among Couples: The Role of Romantic Competence

Joanne Davila, Haley Wodarczyk, and Vickie Bhatia Stony Brook University

We examined the association between romantic competence and positive emotional expressions in a relationship-promoting task serving the dual function of (1) furthering our understanding of the skills needed for adaptive expression of positive emotion that can foster intimacy among couples, and (2) further validating the construct of romantic competence. Eighty-nine emerging adult couples in different-sex relationships were assessed with the Romantic Competence Interview for Emerging Adults and partici- pated in an interaction task, which assessed their ability for adaptive positive emotional expression. Results indicated that women’s romantic competence was positively asso- ciated with both her and her partner’s ability for positive emotional expression, even controlling for relationship satisfaction. Implications for understanding positive emo- tional expression in young couples, as well as the need for increasing romantic competence to facilitate it, are discussed.

Keywords: romantic competence, emerging adults, relationship satisfaction, positive emotion, couples

The ability to express positive emotion to one’s partner is considered an important aspect of what makes relationships succeed (see Gott- man & Gottman, 2015, for a discussion). The- ory and research in a variety of domains support this notion. For example, research on capitaliza- tion indicates that perceiving one’s partner as responding enthusiastically to the sharing of a positive experience or event is associated with greater satisfaction, trust, and intimacy, and less conflict (Gable, Reis, Impett, & Asher, 2004). Having partners talk about the positive aspects of their relationship, often by reminiscing or telling their story of how they got together, is a common technique used in couple interventions to reduce distress and create a platform for increased relationship satisfaction (Buehlman,

Gottman, & Katz, 1992; Christensen, Dimi- djian, & Martell, 2015; Cordova, 2014). Indeed, satisfied couples are more likely than dissatisfied couples to demonstrate more positive affect and intimacy when positively reminiscing (Osgarby & Halford, 2013), and married couples who tell more positive stories about their relationship are less likely to divorce (Buehlman et al., 1992). Positive emotions also can serve to undo the phys- iological arousal effects of negative emotions dur- ing couple conflict interactions (Yuan, McCarthy, Holley, & Levenson, 2010).

Despite the apparent importance of positive emotional expression in couples, and as noted by a growing number of researchers (Hershen- berg, Mavandadi, Baddeley, & Libet, 2016; Levenson, Haase, Bloch, Holley, & Seider, 2013; Osgarby & Halford, 2013), the field has largely focused on negative emotion in couples and on interactions that emphasize conflict and problem-solving, and other challenging circum- stances. These researchers are increasingly call- ing for a focus on positive emotions and on methods that can elicit them. Recently, Osgarby and Halford (2013) provided a direct examina- tion comparing behavior in a positive reminis- cence interaction to that in a typical problem- solving discussion task. They found, among satisfied couples, that positive affect and dyadic

Joanne Davila, Haley Wodarczyk, and Vickie Bhatia, Department of Psychology, Stony Brook University.

Haley Wodarczyk is now at the Center for Community Independence in Somerville MA. Vickie Bhatia is now at the Ralph H. Johnson VA Medical Center, Charleston, SC.

We thank Katie Chan, Alexandra Byrne, and Nicole Barle for assistance with data collection.

Correspondence concerning this article should be ad- dressed to Joanne Davila, Department of Psychology, Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, NY 11794-2500. E-mail: joanne.davila@stonybrook.edu

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Couple and Family Psychology: Research and Practice © 2017 American Psychological Association 2017, Vol. 6, No. 2, 94 –105 2160-4096/17/$12.00 http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/cfp0000077

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intimacy occurred at higher rates in positive reminiscence than in problem-solving, attesting to the fact that traditional types of behavioral interactions used to study couples may not be well-suited to fully understanding positive af- fect and its effects on relationships. As such, it is important that researchers continue to exam- ine the expression of positive emotion in con- texts that are relationship promoting.

Furthermore, given the evidence that express- ing positive emotion is healthy for relationships, it is critical that we understand what contributes to partners’ ability to do so. Although there may be a variety of factors involved, we focused on one— romantic competence (RC)—which is defined by a set of skills believed to contribute to a wide range of aspects of healthy relationship function- ing (Davila et al., 2009, 2017). The skills under- lying RC are (1) insight, which reflects awareness of one’s own and one’s partner’s needs, goals, motivations, and effects on others, awareness of causes and consequences of behavior, and ability to learn from experience; (2) mutuality, which involves consideration of the needs of self and other, and attempts to maximize outcomes for both; and (3) emotion regulation, which is the ability to regulate emotions in response to rela- tionship-relevant experiences (Davila et al., 2017).

As elaborated in Davila et al. (2009, 2017), the construct of RC, and the three skills under- lying it, was developed from social– cognitive theories of interpersonal problem-solving, at- tachment theory, and theories of emotion regu- lation, and the common themes across them. For example, social– cognitive models of interper- sonal problem-solving stress the importance of mutuality and consequential thinking by em- phasizing the need to think through interper- sonal situations in a way that recognizes conse- quences and respects the needs and outcomes of both people involved (Brion-Meisels & Selman, 1984; Schultz, Yeates, & Selman, 1989; Selman & Demorest, 1984; Spivack, Platt, & Shure, 1976; Yeates, Schultz, & Selman, 1990). Attachment theory (Bowlby, 1969, 1973, 1980) stresses that adaptive relational functioning requires insight and the ability to reflect on self and others and to learn from prior experience (Treboux, Crowell, & Waters, 2004). It also stresses the importance of adaptively regulating distress and maintaining self-worth in the face of threats to security (see Cassidy, 1994; Cassidy & Shaver, 1999; Mi- kulincer, Shaver, & Pereg, 2003). Theories of

emotion regulation similarly emphasize the adap- tive nature of the ability to regulate distress and maintain a coherent and positive sense of self (see Cole, Michel, & Teti, 1994; Salovey, Hsee, & Mayer, 1993).

Davila et al. (2017) demonstrated that the three skill domains (insight, mutuality, and emotion regulation) form a valid latent construct of RC, and that RC is associated with key domains of relational and individual well-being, including greater relational security, healthier relationship decision making, greater relationship satisfaction, and fewer symptoms of depression and anxiety.

In view of the fact that it is skill based, RC is a particularly good choice to examine as a correlate and potential predictor of positive emotional ex- pression because it is potentially malleable. Other individual difference variables, such as personal- ity traits or attachment security, which are associ- ated with the propensity for expressing positive emotion (see Livingstone & Srivastava, 2014; Mi- kulincer & Shaver, 2013), may be less open to change. It may be possible to teach people the skills that allow for greater RC, which may then result in more adaptive couple behavior.

In the current study, we hypothesized that RC would be associated with the ability to express positive emotion in a relationship-promoting in- teraction task. The task is designed to elicit posi- tive emotional expressions from both members of the dyad by creating a demand for establishing intimacy (see Hershenberg et al., 2011). Behavior in the relationship-promoting task was coded for positivity of verbal expressions and congruence of verbal content and affect displayed. The positivity code reflects a person’s ability to say something positive about the partner. The congruence code reflects their ability to do so while expressing congruent (i.e., matching) emotion. We included a congruence code because how one says something affects its meaning (e.g., giving a compliment while rolling one’s eyes or in a sarcastic tone). One might say positive words, but if the emotion does not match, then the impact may be different.

More romantically competent partners should be more appropriately responsive to the demand this task creates owing to their ability to understand and care about their part- ner’s needs (which requires insight and mu- tuality), to be aware of one’s true feelings and how one expresses them, or not (which re- quires insight), to recognize the effects of their behaviors on the partner (which also

95POSITIVE EMOTIONAL EXPRESSION IN COUPLES

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requires insight), and to adaptively experi- ence and express their emotions when called for and in appropriate situations (which re- quires emotion regulation). As such, more romantically competent partners should ex- hibit more positivity and more congruence than less romantically competent partners. Therefore, we predicted that greater RC would be associated with greater positivity and greater congruence.

Examining the association between RC and positive emotional expressions in a relationship- promoting task serves the dual function of (1) furthering our understanding of the skills needed for adaptive expression of positive emotion that can foster intimacy among couples, and (2) further validating the construct of RC. If the skills under- lying competence do form the basis for healthy relationship functioning, then competence should be associated with key behaviors exhibited by partners. Indeed, this is one of the first studies examining RC and observable couple behavior. Using data from this same sample, we have shown that RC is associated with more adaptive social support behavior among couples (Bhatia & Da- vila, 2017), strengthening confidence in the pre- diction that competence also will be associated with positive emotional expression.

We also examined whether predicted associ- ations held accounting for relationship satisfac- tion. We have already shown that RC is related to satisfaction in this sample (Davila et al., 2017), and it is typically the case that satisfac- tion is associated with observed behavior among couples, although this study will be the first test of the association between satisfaction and positive emotional expression using this specific relationship-promoting task. Based on Osgarby and Halford’s (2013) finding that sat- isfaction was associated with positive affect and intimacy expressed when positively reminisc- ing, we predicted that satisfaction would be associated with greater positivity and congru- ence. However, we also predicted that RC would retain its association even when control- ling for relationship satisfaction. If so, it would indicate that RC can provide a unique way to understand the skills needed for adaptive behav- ior that is separate from the effects of simply being in a satisfying relationship.

The hypotheses were tested in a sample of emerging adult couples. Emerging adults are an important group in which to study relational pro-

cesses, and there is a growing literature examining their romantic functioning. Not only are they look- ing for relationships and trying to determine what type of relationship/partner is right for them (Ar- nett, 2000; Scott, Schelar, Manlove, & Cui, 2009), they also have high rates of relationship involve- ment, sexual activity, and cohabitation (Arnett & Schwab, 2012; Chandra, Mosher, Copen, & Sion- ean, 2011; Copen, Daniels, & Mosher, 2013), and, for some, marriage (Copen, Daniels, Vespa, & Mosher, 2012). Therefore, emerging adults are making important decisions about relationships that have the potential for long-term impact. In- deed, the quality of their relationships is related to a host of important outcomes (Braithwaite et al., 2016; Norona & Welsh, 2016; Whitton & Kury- luk, 2012) and may set the stage for future roman- tic experiences. Studying romantic functioning among emerging adults may, therefore, help iden- tify ways in which we can help people increase relational success early on and in the future, and, consequently, reduce negative consequences.

Method

Participants and Procedure

Participants were 89 different-sex couples (women: M age � 20.16, SD � 1.63; men: M age � 20.65, SD � 1.82; M relationship length � 73.9 weeks, SD � 76.5 weeks) re- cruited from the Psychology Human Subject Pool and via flyers and announcements on the campus of a large state university in the North- east United States. To be eligible for participa- tion, participants were required to be between 18 and 25 years of age, in a relationship of at least 3 months’ duration, unmarried and with no children, fluent in English, willing to be audio- and video-recorded, and free from reading, vi- sion, or motor problems that would affect com- pletion of study tasks.

Couples were racially/ethnically diverse; 52.8% of men described themselves as Cauca- sian, 22.5% as Asian/Pacific Islander, 15.7% as Latino, 4.5% as Middle Eastern, 3.4% as Black/ African American, and 1.1% as another ethnic- ity; 41.6% of women described themselves as Caucasian, 33.7% as Asian/Pacific Islander, 11.2% as Latina, 5.6% as Black/African Amer- ican, and 7.8% as another ethnicity. The vast majority of participants were students, with

96 DAVILA, WODARCZYK, AND BHATIA

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only four females and four males (4.5% each) indicating they were not enrolled in school.

After providing consent, participants com- pleted, individually, an in-person interview to assess RC and questionnaires (using a Web- based survey protocol), and engaged in the pos- itive-interaction task. They received either course credit or payment ($25) for participation. The study was approved by the university insti- tutional review board.

Measures

Romantic competence. RC was assessed with the Romantic Competence Interview for Emerging Adults (RCI-EA; available on request from the first author). The RCI-EA was adapted from the Romantic Competence Interview cre- ated for adolescents (Davila et al., 2009). Davila and colleagues (Davila et al., 2017) provided evidence of reliability and validity of the RCI-EA in three samples of emerging adults, including the present sample. The RCI-EA is a semistructured interview that probes, using de- velopmentally appropriate language, scenarios, and relationship contexts, participants’ thoughts about, preferences for, and approaches to ro- mantic activities and relationships. It probes experiences in actual relationships and reactions to hypothetical scenarios, both normative and challenging. The RCI-EA interviewer codes re- sponses based on all materials from the inter- view. Codes are made for four skill domains (insight, learning, mutuality, and emotion regu- lation), as well as overall global competence. The global competence code was used in the present study, as prior research has shown that the four skills domains form a coherent latent RC factor, which is highly correlated with the global code (Davila et al., 2017).

The global code was made on a scale, with behaviorally specific anchors/examples, ranging from 1 (low) to 5 (high) with [1/2] points al- lowed. The interview and coding system can be requested from the first author. Interviewers were graduate students in clinical psychology and undergraduate psychology majors who were trained by the developer of the interview. Interviews were audio-recorded to assess reli- ability. Intraclass correlations (ICCs; two-way random, absolute) were conducted on 20 ran- domly selected women’s and 20 randomly se- lected men’s interviews (40 total; 22.5% of the

sample) coded by the interviewer and one reli- ability coder. The ICC for the global code was .88.

Relationship satisfaction. Satisfaction was assessed with the 16-item version of the Couple Satisfaction Index (CSI-16; Funk & Rogge, 2007), a well validated, psychometrically sound measure (Funk & Rogge, 2007; Whitton & Kuryluk, 2012). The CSI-16 is a self-report measure in which participants respond to 10 global evaluations of their romantic relationship on a 6-point Likert scale (0 � not at all true/ never; 5 � completely true/all the time) and six characteristics of their relationship on a bipo- lar adjective scale (e.g., 0 � miserable, 5 � enjoyable). A total score was calculated by summing the responses to all items, with higher scores indicate higher relationship sat- isfaction (� � .91).

Positive interaction task. Couples en- gaged in an unstructured 2-min interaction task, where they were instructed to “spend 2 minutes telling each other what you like most about each other.” Following that instruction, the research staff person left the room to begin video- recording. Couples were made aware that re- search staff would not be listening to their in- teraction as it occurred but would be monitoring it visually to make sure they were on camera.

Interactions were coded with a version of the global coding system utilized by Hershenberg et al. (2011) to code a similar interaction engaged in by adolescent–parent dyads. Trained coders viewed the entire interaction and made ratings along 5-point scales on (1) how positively each partner spoke about their relationship (1 � very negative, 3 � mixed, 5 � very positive); and (2) how congruent each partner’s verbal content and affect was (1 � very incongruent, 5 � very congruent). Coders also rated overall positivity and overall congruence of the interaction as a whole (using the same 5-point scales) taking into account both partners’ behavior.

Twenty interactions (22%) were rated by an additional coder. The ICCs between the two coders’ ratings were: (1) positivity about the relationship (women: .90; men: .80; overall: .82), (2) congruence (women: .71; men: .68; overall: .67), indicating acceptable interrater re- liability.

There were two interactions during which the man did not have the opportunity to speak (his partner spoke the entire time) and one interac-

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tion in which the woman did not have the op- portunity to speak (her partner spoke the entire time). It was decided by the coding team to code the nonspeaking partner’s data as missing be- cause it was not that they had nothing positive to say, but that they did not get the chance to say anything.

Results

Preliminary Analyses

Table 1 presents means, standard deviations, and correlations between the variables. As the means show, on average, both women and men showed moderate to good levels of RC, gener- ally positive and coherent interaction behavior, and were generally satisfied.

The correlations indicated the following. First, partners’ RC was correlated, as was their satisfaction (which was shown in our previous analyses; Davila et al., 2017). Next, women’s RC was positively associated with virtually all aspects of interaction behavior (hers, his, and overall), and with her own satisfaction, in line with predictions. Effect sizes were generally small. Contrary to predictions, men’s RC was not significantly associated with any of the be- havioral data, and existing associations were negative. Men’s RC and satisfaction also were not significantly associated. This differs from what was reported in Davila et al. (2017), where RC and satisfaction were marginally associated for men, likely owing to differences in the an- alytic approach (Davila and colleagues exam-

ined Actor–Partner Interdependence Models (APIMs) of the association between partners’ RC and satisfaction; the coefficients reported are, however, similar in magnitude). Also un- expectedly, men’s satisfaction was not signifi- cantly associated with their behavior, though women’s satisfaction was with their positivity and the overall interaction positivity. Correla- tions with men’s satisfaction may have been affected by the restricted range on this variable. Satisfaction scores for men ranged from 50 to 81, whereas for women they ranged from 31 to 81.

Primary Analyses

These were conducted as APIMs (Kenny, Kashy, & Cook, 2006) using structural equa- tions modeling in AMOS (v. 22). Data from partners within couples are typically dependent on one another, and this is true in this sample (as shown in the correlations in Table 1). There- fore, APIM was selected because it handles the nonindependence of dyadic data by treating the dyad, rather than the individual, as the unit of analysis. It also allows for the independent and simultaneous estimation of both actor (within- partner) and partner (cross-partner) effects. Al- though we did not make predictions about cross-partner effects, the ability to examine them with this analytic strategy is an advantage.

We specified two separate APIMs. We first examined whether RC was associated with pos- itivity and congruence of each partners’ com- ments. Paths representing both within- and

Table 1 Correlations, Means, and Standard Deviations for All Variables

Variable 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

1. RC-W 2. RC-M .26�

3. Positivity-W .26� �.09 4. Positivity-M .22� �.04 .45��

5. Congruence-W .09 �.09 .63�� .33��

6. Congruence-M .29�� �.14 .29�� .61�� .41��

7. Overall positivity .28�� �.14 .75�� .63�� .69�� .60��

8. Overall congruence .27� �.15 .75�� .65�� .63�� .53�� .82��

9. Relationship satisfaction-W .30�� .14 .32�� .20 .21 .08 .28�� .16

10. Relationship satisfaction-M .03 .17 .16 .10 .06 �.07 .13 .07 .48��

M (SD) 3.60 (.58) 3.57 (.63) 4.30 (.79) 4.30 (.79) 4.20 (.76) 4.07 (.77) 3.98 (.92) 4.20 (.84) 70.36 (9.8) 70.44 (7.6)

Note. N � 89 couples; W � women; M � men; RC � romantic competence. � p � .05. �� p � .01, two-tailed.

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cross-partner associations were specified be- tween each partner’s RC and their positivity and congruence scores. Partners’ RC was corre- lated, and errors were correlated within and across partner positivity and congruence scores (all possible correlations). This resulted in a saturated model for which fit could not be ex- amined. However, paths from men’s RC to ev- erything except his congruence were not signif- icant, as was the path from women’s RC to her congruence (all ps � .12), and when dropped, the resulting model fit the data well (�2(4) � 3.17, p � .53, CFI � 1.00, RMSEA � 0.001; see Figure 1). Partners’ RC was correlated, r � .26, p � .02, and the paths from women’s RC to her positive comments (� � .20, p � .01) and his congruence (� � .30, p � .002) were sig- nificant and positive. The path from women’s RC to his positive comments, although signifi- cant in the saturated model, became marginally significant (� � .19, p � .06). The path from men’s RC to his congruence was significant, but in the opposite direction as predicted (� � �.18, p � .03). All significant paths reflected small effect sizes.

We then examined whether RC was associ- ated with the overall positivity and congruence ratings for the interaction. Paths were specified between each partner’s RC and the overall pos- itivity and congruence scores. Partners’ RC was correlated, and errors were correlated for over- all positivity and congruence scores. This re- sulted in a saturated model for which fit could not be examined, and all paths in the model were significant (see Figure 2). Partners’ RC

was correlated, r � .26, p � .02. The paths from women’s RC to overall positivity (� � .34, p � .001) and overall congruence (� � .33, p � .002) were significant and positive. The paths from men’s RC to overall positivity (� � �.22, p � .03) and overall congruence (� � �.24, p � .02) were significant and in the opposite direction predicted. Again, all significant paths reflected small effect sizes.

Each of the two models was rerun including both women’s and men’s relationship satisfac- tion in the model. Within-partner correlations between RC and satisfaction were specified, as was the correlation between partners’ RC and between partners’ satisfaction. Within- and cross-partner paths were specified from satisfac- tion to each interaction variable. Across all models, all significant paths from RC to behav- ior remained. In addition, in the first model, women’s satisfaction was significantly associ- ated with her positivity, r � .26, p � .03, and her congruence, r � .23, p � .05. In the second model, women’s satisfaction was only margin- ally associated with overall positivity, r � .20, p � .09. No other significant associations with satisfaction emerged. Overall, these findings suggest that RC has a unique association with behavior controlling for associations between satisfaction and behavior.

Post Hoc Exploratory Analyses

We conducted a set of post hoc analyses to explore the negative associations between men’s RC and behavior, which were opposite

Figure 1. Actor–Partner Interdependence Model predicting individual behavior from ro- mantic competence. �2(4) � 3.17, p � .53, CFI � 1.00, RMSEA � .001. W � women; M � men; RC � romantic competence; E � error term. Paths with dotted lines were nonsignifi- cant. �� p � .01. � p � .05. p � .06, two-tailed.

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than what had been predicted. Given that in the APIMs women’s RC tended to be a more con- sistent positive predictor of men’s behavior and overall interaction behavior than was men’s RC, we explored whether the interaction of partners’ RC could shed light on the negative findings. To do so, we reconducted the APIM analyses using the final models described above (not control- ling for satisfaction, given that including it did not change the findings). Interaction variables were computed using each partner’s centered RC score. The centered scores were included to control for the main effects of each partner’s RC, and the correlations between the centered variables and the interaction term were included in the model.

In the first analysis, we examined whether the interaction between partners’ RC predicted men’s congruence scores, as men’s RC was a significant negative predictor. The interaction was not a sig- nificant predictor (r � .02, p � .83).

In the second analysis, we examined whether the interaction between partners’ RC predicted the overall positivity and congruence ratings. The interaction was a marginally significant predictor of both positivity, r � .17, p � .08, and congruence, r � .18, p � .07. Although only trends, we elected to decompose the inter- actions to explore their nature. We based this decision on the fact that the small sample size lowers power for detection of small interaction effects. That the interactions were nearing sig- nificance suggests a trend that may be poten- tially meaningful and worthy of exploration. Of course, that the effect sizes were small suggests they should be interpreted cautiously, as does the fact that the analyses were post hoc. The interactions were probed using procedures for examining simple slopes specified by Aiken and West (1991). When women were coded as high

on RC (specified as one SD above the mean), men’s RC was not significantly associated with positivity, r � �.06, p � .64, or congruence, r � �.08, p � .57. However, when women were coded as low on RC (specified as 1 SD below the mean), men’s RC was significantly negatively associated with positivity, r � �.39, p � .005, and congruence, r � �.41, p � .003. This tentatively suggests that men who are more romantically competent may fail to behave in a positive manner only when they are partnered with women who are low in RC. Again, these results should be interpreted cautiously.1

1 Given that these findings emerged only for the overall interaction variables, which reflect dyadic behavior, not just men’s behavior, we conducted one additional post hoc analysis to examine the extent to which each partner’s individual be- havioral codes contributed to the overall interaction codes. An APIM was run in which women’s and men’s positivity and congruence codes predicted the overall positivity and congru- ence codes. All possible paths were specified, as were all correlations between the individual codes, as well as the errors of the overall codes, resulting in a saturated model. Results identified one nonsignificant path from men’s congruence to overall congruence. This path was deleted and the resulting model provided a less than adequate fit based on the RMSEA (�2(1) � 2.13, p � .15, CFI � .99, RMSEA � .11). None- theless, the model was compared with one that constrained corresponding women’s and men’s paths from the individual codes to the overall codes (e.g., women’s path from positivity to overall positivity was constrained to be equal to men’s path from positivity to overall positivity) to examine whether wom- en’s and men’s individual codes equally contributed to the overall codes. The constrained model also provided a less than adequate fit based on the RMSEA (�2(4) � 7.83, p � .10, CFI � .99, RMSEA � .09). Importantly, the �2 difference test (�diff2 (3) � 5.66) was nonsignificant, indicating that the con- strained model provides an equally good fit to the data (i.e., it is not a worse fit than the unconstrained model). This suggests that, except for men’s congruence, which was not a significant predictor, women’s and men’s individual codes contribute equally to the overall codes. Path coefficients from individual codes to overall codes ranged from .25 to .43.

Figure 2. Actor–Partner Interdependence Model predicting overall behavior from romantic competence. W � women; M � men; RC � romantic competence; E � error term. �� p � .01. � p � .05, two-tailed.

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Discussion

This study was designed to examine whether RC was associated with more positive emo- tional expression during a relationship-promot- ing interaction task, serving the dual function of increasing knowledge of the skills needed for adaptive expression of positive emotion and providing additional data validating the con- struct of RC. The following findings emerged.

First, as predicted, among women, greater RC was associated with their ability for greater positive emotional expression, meaning that more competent women were able to say more positive things about their partner in a situation that calls for doing so. Greater RC among women also was associated with her partner’s ability for greater and more congruent positive emotional expression, meaning that partners of romantically competent women were able to say more positive things about the women, and did so in a manner in which their affect matched what they were saying.

These individual findings emerged at the dy- adic level as well. Greater RC among women was associated with greater positivity and con- gruence as reflected in the overall interaction codes, which take into account both partners’ behavior. This suggests that dyadic interaction characterized by adaptive positive emotional expression in a situation that has the potential to enhance intimacy may be fostered by the wom- en’s RC. Following from the definition of RC, the ability to approach one’s relationship with insight, from a place of mutuality, and in an emotionally regulated manner can help women behave in ways and create dyadic behavior that can promote relationship health through intima- cy-building positive emotional expression.

Interestingly, the post hoc, exploratory analyses also highlighted the role that wom- en’s competence may play in this type of dyadic interaction, though they must be inter- preted cautiously. These analyses were con- ducted in an attempt to better understand the negative association between men’s RC and both their own and the dyadic behavior. It is counterintuitive that men’s competence would be associated with less adaptive posi- tive emotional expression. The post hoc anal- yses tentatively suggest that this is only the case when women are lower in competence. Therefore, men who are more romantically

competent may fail to behave in a positive manner only when they are partnered with women who are low in RC. That is, men who are partnered with women who are not com- petent may have a harder time adaptively expressing positive emotion even in situations that explicitly call for it.

On the other hand, one might interpret this finding to mean that men who are less com- petent may express more positive emotion only when partnered with less romantically competent women. The meaning of this is unclear. Perhaps it could be an effort to com- pensate for the partner’s inability to express positive emotion in attempt to bolster the relationship. Or, perhaps it does, in fact, re- flect incompetent behavior on his part. Saying something positive when your partner is un- able to do so may be a sign of poor insight, dependence on the partner for self-esteem (which reflects poor mutuality), and/or poor emotion regulation. Of course, all of this is highly speculative and based on small effect sizes that emerged from a post hoc analysis. Future research will be needed to replicate and further explore whether and how part- ners’ RC may interact to predict positive emotional expression.

That it was women’s RC that seemed to drive the behavior of both members of the couple is consistent with a fairly large body of literature that points to women as being more responsible for regulating the affective bal- ance of relationships (Bloch, Haase, & Lev- enson, 2014; Gottman & Notarius, 2000), al- though this has not been found to be exclusively so (see Bloch et al., 2014). Im- portantly, most prior research has focused more on negative emotion and behavior, and so, continued examination of gender differ- ences in positive emotion expression is need- ed.

Separate from the notion of women’s com- petence driving the behavior of both partners, it is important to consider the following about the negative association between men’s com- petence and behavior. Specifically, it raises the issue of whether the construct of RC is valid for men. All of our prior studies have suggested that it is (i.e., men’s relational functioning was associated in expected ways with competence, even with another behav- ioral task; Bhatia & Davila, 2017; Davila et

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al., 2017), but perhaps it is not as valid in predicting positive behavior, or in this partic- ular task. Perhaps the task is experienced differently by men than women and/or has a different meaning for them. This would be an important area for future research.

Another important finding was that the re- sults for RC held when controlling for rela- tionship satisfaction. Indeed, for women, de- spite that competence, satisfaction, and positive behavior were all related to one an- other, competence emerged as a unique pre- dictor of positive behavior (separate from sat- isfaction). If competence was simply a proxy for satisfaction, this result would not have emerged. This finding is important because it suggests a way to help couples engage in more positive adaptive behavior, specifically by teaching them (at least women) skills to become more romantically competent. That satisfaction is associated with positive behav- ior provides no specific direction for clinical intervention. Therefore, the findings suggest that competence can provide a unique way to understand the skills needed for adaptive be- havior that is separate from the effects of simply being in a satisfying relationship.

The findings have a number of important implications. First, they begin to shed light on one, potentially malleable, factor—RC—that may increase partners’— or at least wom- en’s—ability to express positive emotion in situations that have the potential to increase relationship intimacy. This has important clinical implications. Mirgain and Cordova (2007) demonstrated that partners with good emotion skills experience greater intimacy and, consequently, are more satisfied. There- fore, given that expressing positive emotion is healthy for relationships, helping women be- come more romantically competent may pro- mote skills that allow them to create healthier relationships. This suggests that programs (e.g., relationship education) that focus on increasing RC through training in the skills of insight, mutuality, and emotion regulation, may be beneficial, at least for young women. Whether they would be for young men is unclear from our findings, further supporting the importance of clarifying whether and how competence is related to positive emotional expression for men.

The findings also provide more support for the validity of the RC construct. Prior re- search has demonstrated associations with self-reported indicators of healthy relation- ship functioning (Davila et al., 2017). This study, along with that of Bhatia and Davila (2017), shows that RC is associated with key behavioral indicators of adaptive relational functioning.

The findings also support the use of our pos- itive interaction task to assess positive emo- tional expression. There are few such tasks de- scribed in the literature. This one is easy to administer, brief for the couples, and able to be quickly and reliably coded.

Naturally, the findings must be interpreted with the following limitations in mind. First, the study was cross-sectional in nature. Al- though we view this as appropriate for an initial test of associations between compe- tence and behavior, future research would benefit from prospective designs that can ad- dress issues of temporal ordering (e.g., do competent partners behave better? Do better behaved partners become more competent in their relationships?) and prediction of rela- tionship outcomes (e.g., does positive emo- tional expression mediate associations be- tween competence and increases in satisfaction or other indicators of relationship health?). Second the study only included emerging adults. Although they are a relevant sample on which to focus because they may be making decisions of consequence to their future, we do not know the extent to which the findings generalize to couples at other ages and relationship stages, nor do we know whether the findings generalize to couples in same-sex relationships, as all participants were in different-sex relationships. Addi- tional research will be needed in examining different types of couples at different ages and developmental phases. In addition, the task we used, because of its focus and brevity, only captures basic positive emotional ex- pression. It does not assess more complex emotional processes, such as upregulation or coregulation in couples (Levenson et al., 2013). In addition, although the 2-min inter- action creates a high-demand situation and was successful in eliciting a range of behav- iors in this study and in our prior research (Hershenberg et al., 2011), the short time and

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the instruction to say what you like about each other may have created an artificial sit- uation, and may have contributed to the lim- ited associations with relationship satisfac- tion. Future research should examine positivity in other types of interactions as well as longer interactions (Laurenceau, Kleinman, Kaczynski, & Carver, 2010). Fi- nally, although the sample size was well- powered enough to detect predicted effects (though not the interactions), larger samples are always necessary for purposes of replica- tion and generalization. Related to this, effect sizes were small. Their replicability and prac- tical significance must be determined in fu- ture research, particularly if they are to be used to guide relationship education programs as suggested earlier. Limitations aside, the results provide important information about how RC may allow young couples to engage in adaptive expression of positive emotion, and tentatively suggest that emerging adults may benefit from learning the skills necessary to be competent.

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Received August 16, 2016 Revision received April 17, 2017

Accepted April 20, 2017 �

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