Steady relationships helps one grow

Carnegie Mellon University's Brooke Feeney and University of California, Santa Barbara's Nancy L. Collins has detailed specific interpersonal processes in the study that explains how close relationships help individuals thrive.

Feeney said that relationships enable us to not only cope with stress or adversity, but also to learn, grow, explore, achieve goals, cultivate new talents and find purpose and meaning in life.

According to the researchers, thriving involves five components of well-being: happiness and life satisfaction; having purpose and meaning in life and progressing toward meaningful life goals; psychological well-being (positive self-regard, absence of mental health symptoms/disorders); social well-being (deep and meaningful human connections, faith in others and humanity, positive interpersonal expectancies); and physical well-being (healthy weight and activity levels, health status above expected baselines).

Whether the relationship is with friends, parents, siblings, a spouse or mentors, people will be most likely to thrive with well-functioning close relationships that serve two important functions: enabling them to thrive through adversity and enabling them to thrive in the absence of adversity.

Supportive relationships help people thrive through adversity not only by buffering individuals from negative effects of stress, but also by enabling them to flourish either because of or in spite of their circumstances and help people thrive in the absence of adversity by enabling them to embrace and pursue opportunities that enhance positive well-being, broaden and build resources and foster a sense of purpose and meaning in life. This type of support is referred to as relational catalyst (RC) support because support providers can serve as active catalysts for thriving in this context. This form of support emphasizes that the promotion of thriving through life opportunities is its core purpose.

The study was published in the Personality and Social Psychology Review.