Companionship in dual-smoker couples’ everyday life

Abstract

Background: One form of social interaction is companionship (pleasurable social contacts). So far, companionship was found to be related to higher relationship satisfaction and less negative affect in cross-sectional studies. However, companionship has not been investigated in daily life, in the context of health-behavior change and from a dyadic perspective. Therefore, this study aimed at examining associations between companionship, relationship satisfaction, affect and health-behavior change in dual-smoker couples applying a dyadic intensive longitudinal approach. Methods: Overall, 83 heterosexual dual-smoker couples reported in daily smartphone diaries for 32 consecutive days their daily number of cigarettes smoked, relationship satisfaction, positive and negative affect, as well as companionship (having a good time together or laughing often together) around a joint quit attempt. Findings: Dyadic multilevel analyses based on the Actor-Partner Interdependence Model revealed that daily fluctuations in one’s own companionship (actor effect) and partner’s companionship (partner effect) were related to higher relationship satisfaction, positive affect and smoking behaviour and to lower negative affect before and after a joint quit attempt. Discussion: Findings emphasize the need for studying the associations between companionship, relationship satisfaction, positive and negative affect and health outcomes in couples’ everyday life.