👻 Why is ghosting hurtful? 📌Check out this article by Szczesniak, Pierce, and Spielmann (2025), which examined emotional and behavioral responses to ghosting versus explicit rejection in an immersive dating scenario. Both ghosted and explicitly rejected individuals reported high negative emotion —

📌Check out this article by de Bel, Potarca, and van Duijn (2025), which maps bilateral family ties across three generations, including children, mothers, fathers, and both maternal and paternal grandparents, in divorced and non-divorced families.

We are excited to announce publication of a PR special issue entitled "Complex and Diverse Singlehood Experiences," edited by Katarzyna Adamczyk and Yuthika Girme. The issue contains a dozen articles (plus an introduction by the guest editors), many of which are...

📌Check out this article by Murphy et al. (2025), which validated a partner version of the Psychological Distance Scaling Task to assess partner-schema structures, defined as the degree of connectedness in beliefs about romantic partners. Both self- and partner-versions of this

📌Check out this article by Crowley et al. (2025), which explored how people with opioid use disorder (OUD) and criminal justice involvement make sense of friendship. Their findings highlight the complex, often fraught nature of these bonds on the margins

📌 Check out this article by Tian (2025), which examined the predictors and outcomes of support seeking following spousal death. Bereaved individuals were less likely to seek support when perceived risks were higher and communication efficacy was lower —

Check out this systematic review by Mauroy et al. (2025), which explored whether empathic accuracy (EA) changes across childhood and adolescence. Their findings suggest that age is not clearly associated with changes in EA.

To stay up-to-date on all new articles and news at Personal Relationships follow us across our social media platforms! #IARR #PersonalRelationships

Check out this article from Brown et al. (2024). Two experiments tasked straight men to read about a girlfriend cheating on them with a man or woman described as masculine or feminine. Participants were most upset when learning about infidelity with a man but...

Check out this article by Robbins, Spahr, and Karan (2024) that revealed that people in same-sex couples hone their social networks to close, supportive members with whom they have one-on-one, satisfying interactions. #IARR #personalrelationships #Academicsky

College students’ descriptions of romantic-relationship progression were analyzed in two studies a decade apart. Four consistent stages emerged: flirtationship, relationship potential, in-a-relationship, and commitment or bust.

Congratulations to Dr. David Kenny on having one of the top 10 most cited Personal Relationship articles in the past decade. The article Reflections on the actor—partner interdependence model reviews the history of the development of the APIM, focusing on the original...

Check out this article by Brock and Yoshimura (2024) from our March issue. How are stories about a sibling’s death connected to well-being? “Finding a silver lining” with positivity is uncommon; instead, siblings often make sense of the loss through emphasis on facts.

Congrats to Willis Klein, Sherry Li, & Suzanne Wood for their article “A qualitative analysis of gaslighting in romantic relationships” being one of PR’s 12 most-cited articles during 2024 (of those published from 2022-2024).

This study by Yu found that wives tend to be their husband’s substantial source of perceived psychological well-being than the reverse; however, the benefit of psychological well-being appears to be less for husbands of stay-at-home wives compared with husbands of employed wives.

Congrats to Brian Ogolsky and Laura Stafford for their article “A systematic review of relationship maintenance: Reflecting back and looking to the future” being one of PR’s 12 most-cited articles during 2024 (of those published from 2022-2024).

Congrats to Menelaos Apostolou and his large team of co-authors for their article “Strategies for becoming a more desirable mate: Evidence from 14 countries” being one of PR’s 12 most-cited articles during 2024 (of those published from 2022-2024).

Congratulations to Drs. Mie Kito, Masaki Yuki, and Robert Thomson on having one of the top 10 most cited Personal Relationship articles in the past decade. The article Relational mobility and close relationships: A socioecological approach to explain cross-cultural...

Check it out! Lu Ran Zhang and Wei-Wen Chen performed a Latent profile study of Chinese daters: those who stay loyal and use "voice" in conflicts feel the most partner responsiveness and happiest.

New article alert! We have one of the publications from March 2025. This study emphasizes the importance of the subjective orgasm experience in same-sex relationships, showing that the way an orgasm is perceived...

Congratulations to Dr. Chris Segrin on being one of Personal Relationships Top 10 reviewers in 2024. Dr. Segrin is a Regents Professor in the Department of Communication at the University of Arizona. He is a behavioral scientist whose specialty is interpersonal relationships...

Check it out! Sharing secrets is a key aspect of friendship. This study found that sharing and being told personal secrets is consistently linked with close friendship and social connection value, whereas...

Stay connected with the latest in relationship science! Follow Personal Relationships for research highlights, calls for papers, and insights from leading scholars worldwide. Share with your colleagues and students so we can continue growing our community of researchers.

Congrats to Drs. Mitch Brown, Madeline Brown & Bridget O'Neil for their article “Contextual desirability of strong men employing affiliative and aggressive humor” being one of PR’s 12 most-cited articles during 2024 (of those published from 2022-2024). It tested whether…

Join us in congratulating Dr. Bill Chopik on being one of Personal Relationships Top 10 reviewers in 2024. Dr. Bill Chopik is an associate professor in the Department of Psychology at Michigan State University. He studies how close relationships – and the people in them –

Moving on up! Personal Relationships Impact Factor Shows Dramatic Rise in Just-Released 2024 Statistics.

Join us in congratulating Dr. Randi Garcia on having her article be one of the Top 10 most cited articles in Personal Relationships over the last decade! Dr. Garcia is an Associate Professor of Psychology and of Statistical & Data Sciences at Smith College.

This article looks at Non-marital dating relationships and how it can impact our wellbeing. When considered with one's own drinking behavior, perceptions of romantic partner drinking associate with anxiety and relationship satisfaction for young adult men, but not women (Himes et al., 2024).

This article highlights Parents' personal networks are both a resource and risk for vulnerable children. Children’s behavioral and social-related problems are associated with their parents' close relationships. Providing valuable insights for professionals working to protect children at risk.

Join us in congratulating Dr. Theresa Pauly on being one of Personal Relationships top 10 reviewers of 2024! Dr. Theresa Pauly is an Assistant Professor and Canada Research Chair in social relationships, health, and aging at Simon Fraser University.

Join us in congratulating Drs. Denise Haunani Solomon and Kellie Brisini on having their article be one of the Top 10 most cited articles in Personal Relationships over the last decade! Read more about them and the article below.

Join us in congratulating Dr. Jeffery Aspelmeier! Dr. Aspelmeier is currently a Full Professor in the Department of Psychology and Interim Dean of the College of Humanities and Behavioral Sciences at Radford University, where he has been teaching since 1999.

This study adapts a relationship commitment measure for singlehood, showing that satisfaction, investment, and alternatives predict singlehood commitment. As singlehood grows globally, understanding its dynamics is vital. These findings deepen insights into what drives commitment to being single.

Join us in congratulating Dr. Harry Blatterer! Dr. Blatterer is a sociologist who works on the intersection of the social and human sciences, and the humanities.

Join us in congratulating Dr. Amy Rauer! Amy Rauer (Ph.D., Developmental Psychology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor) is a Professor in Counseling, Human Development, and Family Science at the University of Tennessee at Knoxville.

This publication by Denes et al. (2023) dives into using more positive emotion words when managing conflict with a romantic partner. They link this to how conversation are perceived as less threatening to the relationship for women. Look on our website to read more!

This week we’re highlighting a publishing by Kredl et al. that found that individuals lower in self-concept clarity find it more challenging to navigate partner selection and reported dating incompatible others more often.

Join us in congratulating Dr. Chopik! Dr. Bill Chopik is an associate professor in the Department of Psychology at Michigan State University. He studies how close relationships—and the people in them—change over time and across situations.

Want to add to our 2025 publications? We take publications from all over the world.☺️

We have some exciting metrics to share!

Congratulations to Dr. David Rodrigues on being one of Personal Relationships Top 10 Reviewers of 2024. Dr. Rodrigues is an Assistant Researcher with Habilitation and Vice-Director of CIS-Iscte in Lisbon, Portugal.

New December articles are here! This meta-analysis of studies measuring infidelity highlights variability in infidelity definitions and research methods. Findings reveal gaps in infidelity research, demographic biases, and methodological concerns, urging clarity and inclusivity in future studies.

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New article! (Apostolou et al., 2024) #Onlinefirst A global study of 7,181 people from 14 countries reveals the strategies that people employ in order to become more desirable as mates. The top tactics include enhancing looks and flaunting talents, while less frequently resorting to hiding flaws.

New article! (Frampton, 2024) #Onlinefirst This experiment tested predictors of two types of romantic jealousy. Findings show that perceived threat to expectations of specialness predict both types of jealousy, and it is the only predictor of retroactive jealousy...

New article! (Karen Wu and Olajide Bamishigbin, 2024) #Onlinefirst We interviewed 29 ghostees, finding common themes including attributions of incompatibility, stages of grief, lost respect for the ghoster, and empathy for the ghoster, often from experiencing both sides.

New article! (Körner et al., 2024) #Onlinefirst Self-compassion, i.e. a caring and kind attitude toward yourself regardless of your own shortcomings, has a positive influence not only on your own relationship satisfaction but also on that of your partner.

New article! (Young et al., 2024) #Onlinefirst This study used cubic polynomial regression and response surface analysis to examine how mate value discrepancies (self vs. partner perceptions) relate to mate retention behaviors.