ROMANTIC RELATIONSHIP AND WELL-BEING: A REVIEW OF THE ROLE OF TRUST, LOVE EXPRESSION, COMMITMENT

Abstract

While there is consensus that romantic relationships are important for personal growth and can potentially lead to positive emotions including happiness. Limited studies have looked at the specific mechanisms in which the relationship can contribute to well-being. This review is part of the attempt to further understand how romantic relationships can contribute to well-being by focusing on specific elements of the relationships namely trust, love expression, and commitment. Trust, love expression and commitment are arguably key aspects about romantic relationships that contribute well-being and therefore become the key focus in this review. A total of 48 studies were included in this review. This review emphasizes the importance of romantic relationships for well-being and highlights the role of trust, love expression, and commitment as key elements that should be focused on by future research in this area. In addition, this paper also discusses two Social Exchange Theory and PERMA as main theoretical framework in explaining the relationships between romantic relationships and well-being and the role of trust, love expression and emotions as elements in romantic relationships. This review highlights the need for more studies to look at these aspects from a bigger picture and to include sample from broader cultural context.