Romantic relationship is one of the most important relationship in individual's life, so it is important to create and maintain a quality relationship. Our research focuses primarily on three indicators of couple`s relationship quality: personality structure, conflict resolution styles, and emotional competence. Moreover, we were interested in the quality of the relationship in couples with / without children and how satisfaction with the relationship changes over time. The purpose of the master's thesis is therefore to answer the question of whether there are links between the defined indicators and couple`s relationship quality. The research included 130 married or in the romantic relationship individuals. Based on the presented theory, we formulated eight hypotheses, which we tested in the empirical part with the Dyadic Adjustment Scale, Big Five Inventory, Romantic partner conflict scale and Emotional Intelligence, Skills and Competence Questionnaire.
The results showed that parenting is not associated with the satisfaction in a relationship, as well as the satisfaction does not change over time, while highly expressed neuroticism is an essential indicator of satisfaction or dissatisfaction in the romantic relationship. With regards to the Big Five personality traits, we found that people with highly expressed neuroticism use more submission, separation and interaction reactivity and less avoidance in resolving partner conflicts, while people who are able to manage and regulate emotions more often choose avoidance as a strategy of resolving partnerships conflicts. There were no significant differences between men and women in resolving partnerships conflicts. We found that people who are more involved in a partnership and agree more with their partner are more likely to use compromise in resolving partner`s conflicts. Research has also shown that people who are able to perceive and understand emotions, and express and label emotions also more often use the compromise strategy. It is also important to note that the couple`s relationship quality is related to individual dimensions of emotional competence.
We can conclude that the couple`s relationship quality is a rather broad concept, which depends on many factors. The defined indicators that we used in the research are only a part of those that contribute to a couple`s relationship quality.
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