Romantic Relationship as Predictor of Women’s Psychological Well Being

Abstract

Introduction Psychological well-being is one of the most important components of mental health, impacted by various biological, chemical, cognitive, and social factors (1,2). Recent data show that women’s psychological health is inferior to men (3), presumably due to neurobiological and psychosocial factors (1). Recent findings show that romantic relationship satisfaction also plays an important role in women’s psychological health and well-being (4, 5, 6). Aim The aim of this study was to examine whether factors related to romantic relationships can predict women’s psychological well-being. Methods The study was conducted from July to December 2024 in Lithuania. Women aged 25–49 and involved in romantic relationships were asked to participate survey (paper or electronic mode). Psychological well-being was assessed using the World Health Organization’s well-being index WHO-5 (7). For romantic relationship satisfaction, the Relationship Assessment Scale (8) was used. In total, 134 questionnaires were included in this analysis. MS Excel and IBM SPSS Statistics 29.0 were used for statistical analysis. The means were compared using T-test and ANOVA, for associations the Pearson’s correlation was used. Factors, predicting psychological well-being, were examined using binary logistic regression. Results Overall psychological well-being was high (M=61.2, SD=19.01). However, 25.4% indicated low psychological wellbeing. Psychological well-being was not associated with marital status (t=0.82, p=0.415), co-living (t=-0.07, p=0.949), having children (t=0.81, p=0.421), age (r=0.04, p=0.624), residence (F=0.04, p=0.959), education (F=1.17, p=0.327), and occupation (F=2.04, p=0.111). Romantic relationship duration among women was 10.7 (SD 8.38) years. They were satisfied with their relationship M=3.7 (SD 0.81). The satisfaction was not associated with relationship duration (r=-0.11, p=0.209), age (r=-0.08, p=0.393), co-living (t=-1.46, p=0.147), marital status (t=-0.50, p=0.618), previous marriages (t=0.97, p=0.335), and having children (t=0.93, p=0.355). Romantic relationship satisfaction predicted good psychological well-being (OR=13.95, p<0.001), while other romantic relationship factors, such as marital status, previous marriages, relationship duration, living together, having children and number of children, did not predict psychological well-being (p>0.05). Conclusions Most women rated their psychological well-being as high, however 25.4% indicated low psychological wellbeing.Women were mostly satisfied with their romantic relationship (mean score 3.7 in scale from 1 to 5).Among factors related to romantic relationships, only romantic relationship satisfaction (OR=13.95) predicted high psychological well-being among women.