Dyadic Perspectives in Genetically Informed Research

Fundamental aspects of the human experience and the development of the self occur in the context of romantic relationships. Central aspects of these relationships (e.g., trust, commitment, satisfaction, stability) are... [ view full abstract ]

Fundamental aspects of the human experience and the development of the self occur in the context of romantic relationships. Central aspects of these relationships (e.g., trust, commitment, satisfaction, stability) are dyadically constructed, cautioning against reductionist approaches that focus on the characteristics of either partner in isolation. There is growing interest in understanding relationship outcomes in behavioral genetic research; however, there has not yet been an in-depth treatment of whether and how traditional behavioral genetic models are appropriate for understanding romantic relationship outcomes. The overarching goals of this paper are to: (1) describe the current state of genetically informative research for dyadic romantic relationship outcomes (e.g., marital status, relationship satisfaction) with a particular emphasis on the limitations of the individual-focused statistical models that have generated this knowledge; and (2) to outline an agenda for future research in this area that incorporates a dyadic perspective. This work addresses an important gap in the literature, which is the disconnect between decades of behavioral research showing that relationship outcomes are more than the sum of the individual partners’ characteristics, and the typical approach of treating the individual as the unit of analysis in genetically informed designs.