Guided by theory emphasizing that partner responsiveness underlies well-functioning romantic relationships, we examined whether partners’ responsive behavior buffered the degree to which a personal vulnerability (depressive symptoms) and external stress predicted declines in relationship adjustment. Using an existing data set, we tested whether individuals’ depressive symptoms and stress interacted with observer-coded partner responsive behavior during marital conflict discussions to predict change in marital adjustment at the next time point (N = 195 couples Time 1 [T1]–Time 2 [T2], 158 couples T2–Time 3 [T3]). Individuals experiencing greater (a) depressive symptoms or (b) stress showed sharper declines in marital adjustment. However, as predicted, the negative effects of both depressive symptoms and stress were attenuated when partners displayed high behavioral responsiveness. These findings underscore the importance of adopting a dyadic perspective to understand how partners’ responsive behavior can overcome the harmful effects of personal and situational vulnerabilities on relationship outcomes.

在强调伴侣反应能力是良好浪漫关系的基础的理论指导下，我们检查了伴侣的反应行为是否缓冲了个人脆弱性（抑郁症状）和外部压力预测关系​​调整下降的程度。使用现有数据集，我们测试了在婚姻冲突讨论期间个人的抑郁症状和压力是否与观察者编码的伴侣反应行为相互作用，以预测下一个时间点婚姻调整的变化（N= 195 对时间 1 [T1]–时间 2 [T2]，158 对 T2–时间 3 [T3]）。经历更大（a）抑郁症状或（b）压力的个体在婚姻调整中表现出更大幅度的下降。然而，正如预期的那样，当伴侣表现出高行为反应时，抑郁症状和压力的负面影响都会减弱。这些发现强调了采用二元视角来了解合作伙伴的反应行为如何克服个人和情境脆弱性对关系结果的有害影响的重要性。