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The Theory of Resilience and Relational Load
In a more recent study, taken directly from their abstract, Dr. Afifi and colleagues used the theory of resilience and relational load, to examine how married individuals’ baseline communal orientation (CO) and relational load (RL) at the beginning of the pandemic predicted their stress, conflict, mental health, and flourishing during quarantine. They had 3,601 married individuals complete four online surveys from April to June 2020. Their results revealed that the initial levels of communal orientation brought to quarantine predicted less stress and conflict, and better mental health and flourishing at baseline, and these outcomes remained relatively stable across the next 3 months. Relational load at baseline did the exact opposite for these outcomes, making coping more difficult. They also hypothesized that communal orientation and relational load moderated the impact of stress (T1) on mental health 3 months later by reducing conflict. Rather than serving as buffers, communal orientation and relational load at baseline directly affected conflict (T2/T3) and mental health (T4) throughout quarantine. Read on to learn more about this theory and its framework. And if this study I just mentioned sounds interesting to you I encourage you to look it up on the Journal of Communication and search for the title of Resilience as a predictor for why some marital relationships flourished and others struggled during the initial months of COVID-19.
Salehuddin, A. S., King, J., Afifi, T. D., & Afifi, W. A. (2023). Resilience as a predictor for why some marital relationships flourished and others struggled during the initial months of COVID-19. Journal of Communication, 73(5), 427–438. https://doi- org.proxy.ashland.edu:2648/10.1093/joc/jqad011
