The Effect Of Childhood Environmental Unpredictability On Relationship Commitment:the Mediating Role Of Motivation For Relational Activities And Relationship Satisfaction

The quality of intimate relationships affects the relationship functioning between partners and the psychological well-being of individuals,and a key factor in measuring the quality of intimate relationships is Relationship Commitment.Exploring the factors and psychological mechanisms that influence Relationship Commitment can lead to an understanding of partners’ needs in intimate relationships,finding appropriate behavioural patterns on how to relate to partners,and is also crucial to people’s overall well-being in romantic relationships.Life history theory in evolutionary psychology suggests that childhood environments influence an individual’s life history strategies,resulting in individuals having different patterns of romantic relationship interactions,which in turn influence relationship outcomes.Self-determination theory is applied to the study of the motivational hierarchy model of romantic relationships,and the concept of the Motivations for Relational Activities is proposed.In this study,two aspects of the Motivations for Relational Activities,Social Support(psychological)and Sexual Intimacy(physiological),were selected to explore how individuals’ levels of autonomy and control in romantic relationships affect relationship outcomes.Therefore,this study combines the perspectives of evolutionary psychology and self-determination to explore the effects of Childhood Environmental Unpredictability on Relationship Commitment and the chain mediating role of Sexual Intimacy Motivation and Social Support Motivation in Motivations for Relational Activities and Relationship Satisfaction.The study revises the Sexual Intimacy Motivation and Social Support Motivation subscales of the the Motivations for Relational Activities scale(MAR)locally among university students.499 valid questionnaires were returned,and 70 students were randomly selected for retesting after eight weeks,using the Relationship Activity Scale and the Couple Motivation Questionnaire as validity criterion.The results were as follows.(1)The results of the exploratory factor analysis showed that both motivation for Sexual Intimacy Activities and motivation for Social Support Activities were divided into two dimensions for exploratory factor analysis,autonomy and control,and the results showed both autonomy and control factors.(2)The results of the validation factor analysis indicated that the model fit for the Sexual Intimacy Motivation Scale was χ2/df=4.432,CFI =0.949,TLI=0.929,NFI=0.938,RMSEA=0.099,which was a good model fit;the model fit for the Social Support Motivation Scale was χ2/df=4.491,CFI =0.955,TLI =0.940,NFI=0.943,RMSEA=0.088,a good model fit.(3)The internal consistency coefficients of each dimension were 0.906,0.841,0.919,0.827,all of which were greater than 0.8.The internal consistency coefficients were good,and the retest reliability was 0.81,0.72,0.89,0.75,which met the reliability requirements.(4)The subscales were significantly correlated with the questionnaire the Couple Motivation Questionnaire(r=-0.45-0.52,p<0.01)and with the Relationship Activity Scale(r=-0.21-0.68,p<0.05),with good criterion-related validity.In Study 2,566 university students were surveyed as subjects using the Childhood Environment Unpredictability,Motivation for Relationship Activities,Relationship Satisfaction,and Relationship Commitment scales,and the results were as follows.(1)Childhood Environment Unpredictability significantly and negatively predicted Relationship Commitment,i.e.,the higher the Childhood Environment Unpredictability,the lower the Relationship Commitment;whereas the lower the same-year Environment Unpredictability,the higher the Relationship Commitment.(2)Relationship Satisfaction mediates the relationship between Childhood Environmental Unpredictability and Relationship Commitment.(3)Sexual Intimacy Autonomy Motivation,Social Support Autonomy Motivation and Relationship Satisfaction in the motivation for Relational Activities mediated the chain between Childhood Environmental Unpredictability and Relationship commitment.(4)The mediating role of Social Support Autonomous Motivation was stronger than the mediating role of Sexual Intimate Autonomous Motivation.