Relational turbulence theory posits that external changes to the relational environment compel romantic partners to navigate transitions by establishing new daily routines as interdependent couples. The COVID-19 pandemic is an unprecedented transition fraught with difficult changes that have the potential to be especially disruptive to romantic partners’ daily routines as couples alter their patterns of interdependence and adapt their everyday lives. To study the pandemic’s effect as a relational transition, college students in romantic relationships (N = 314) completed measures of partner facilitation and interference, negative emotions, and relational turbulence as they recalled what their relationships were like prior to the pandemic (January, 2020) and then reported on their relationships during the peak of the first wave of the pandemic in the U.S. (April, 2020). On average, negative emotions (i.e., anger, fear, sadness) toward interacting with partners and relational turbulence both increased from before to during the pandemic, and partner interference was positively correlated, whereas facilitation was inversely correlated, with negative emotions during the pandemic. Results of a within-subjects mediation model revealed that changes in relational turbulence were explained, in part, by a decrease in partner interdependence due to the pandemic. A direct effect of the pandemic on increases in relational turbulence was also discovered.

关系动荡理论认为，关系环境的外部变化迫使浪漫伴侣通过建立新的日常套路作为相互依存的夫妻来驾驭过渡。COVID-19大流行是史无前例的大转变，充满了艰难的变化，因为夫妻改变相互依存的方式并适应日常生活，这可能会特别破坏浪漫伴侣的日常生活。为了研究大流行作为关系转变的影响，大学生之间的恋爱关系（N= 314）完成了对伴侣促进和干扰，负面情绪和关系动荡的衡量，因为他们回想起大流行之前的关系（2020年1月），然后报告了第一波大流行高峰期的伴侣关系在美国（2020年4月）。平均而言，从大流行之前到大流行期间，与伴侣互动的消极情绪（即愤怒，恐惧，悲伤）和关系动荡都从前增加，而伴侣干预与大流行期间的消极情绪呈正相关，而促进则与消极情绪成反比。受试者内部调解模型的结果表明，关系动荡的变化部分是由于大流行导致伴侣相互依存度降低所致。