Social support exchange and relationship satisfaction among couples living with HIV: Actor–partner effects of provided and received emotional support

TL;DR

This study explores how emotional support affects relationship satisfaction in couples where at least one partner has HIV.

Contribution

The study reveals how provided and received emotional support influence relationship satisfaction differently at the individual and couple levels.

Findings

Provided emotional support acts as a couple-level resource for relationship satisfaction.

Received emotional support functions more as an individual-level resource.

The effects are consistent across HIV serostatus and sexual orientation in treated couples.

Abstract

This study aimed to examine the associations between both provided and received emotional social support and relationship satisfaction among romantic couples in which at least one partner was HIV positive. In addition, couples’ serostatus concordance and sexual orientation were tested as potential moderators of the effects of social support exchange. A total of 105 couples participated in the study, of whom 46.7% were seroconcordant and 73.3% were same-gender couples. Each partner independently evaluated provided and received emotional social support using the relevant subscales of the Berlin Social Support Scales. Relationship satisfaction was assessed individually using the Relationship Assessment Scale. In the actor–partner interdependence model (APIM), actor and partner effects were comparable for provided support, whereas for received support, the actor effect was slightly stronger than the partner effect. Partners within dyads were empirically classified as indistinguishable. This classification was further supported by the absence of moderating effects of either serostatus concordance or sexual orientation at the dyadic level. The findings suggest that the perceived provision of emotional support functions as a couple-level resource, whereas the perceived receipt of emotional support operates primarily as an individual-level resource for relationship satisfaction. This pattern of support exchange appears consistent across couples, regardless of HIV serostatus or sexual orientation, among our sample of highly functioning people living with HIV who are receiving treatment.

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