Love really is all you need: Happy relationships help people thrive in every aspect of their lives

                       

Researchers claim that relationships help people cope with stress and adversity as well as helping them to learn, explore, achieve goals, cultivate new talents and find purpose and meaning in life.

But how someone provides support dictates how successful another person can become.

Previous research has shown that people with supportive and rewarding relationships have better mental health and quality of life, and lower rates of morbidity and mortality.

The new study, published in Personality and Social Psychology Review, builds on this and says that people are most likely to thrive with well-functioning close relationships.

These relationships could be romantic or between friends, parents, siblings or mentors.

Lead researcher Dr Feeney said: ‘Relationships serve an important function of not simply helping people return to baseline, but helping them to thrive by exceeding prior baseline levels of functioning.

‘We refer to this as source of strength (SOS) support, and emphasise that the promotion of thriving through adversity is the core purpose of this support function.’

She explained that relationships should support a person’s development by helping them seize opportunities and explore, grow and achieve.

This type of support is referred to as relational catalyst (RC) support.

And the social scientists found that support providers with certain characteristics can provide more meaningful support and the most important is sensitivity.

‘It is not just whether someone provides support, but it is how he or she does it that determines the outcome of that support,’ Dr Feeney said.

‘Any behaviours in the service of providing SOS and RC support must be enacted both responsively and sensitively to promote thriving.

‘Being responsive involves providing the type and amount of support that is dictated by the situation and by the partner's needs, and being sensitive involves responding to needs in such a way that the support-recipient feels understood, validated, and cared for.’

She warned that some support providers may accidentally do more harm than good, by making a person feel weak, needy or inadequate.

They could also run the risk of making someone feel guilty, indebted or as if they are a burden.