Ricerc@Sapienza

Introduction: Factors associated with marital satisfaction are multiple. Psychological health of both partners have been showed to play a fundamental role. Empirical evidences showed negative association between stress and relationship satisfaction, thus highlighting the need of examining stress as a dyadic phenomenon. Similarly, depression seems to negatively predict marital satisfaction, varying across gender. However, evidences are still lacking.

Over the last thirty years, the actor-partner interdependence model (Kenny, 1996) became an important methodology to address interpersonal perceptions in dyads. In this contribution, we present each practical step to conduct an extended version of it, the actor-partner interdependence mediation model (Ledermann, Macho, & Kenny, 2011) using multilevel modeling. Specifically, we posit that individuals’ and their romantic partners’ positivity, a personality disposition, enhance relationship satisfaction, through the individuals’ perceptions of partners’ positivity.