The effects of admiration and gratitude expression on perceived partner responsiveness among adolescents: The roles of narcissism and depression

Most of the existing research on emotions in romantic relationships has mostly focused on the emotion experience rather than emotion expression, negative emotions rather than positive emotions, and emotions among adult romantic couples rather than adolescent romantic couples. Drawing on the social function approach to emotions, the thesis involves two goals. The first goal was to investigate the effect of positive emotion expression (gratitude and admiration) on late adolescents' close relationship outcomes (perceived partner responsiveness, relationship commitment, and relationship satisfaction. The study's second goal was to examine the moderating role of narcissism and depression in the association between emotion expression and relationship outcomes. In the current thesis, it was hypothesized that being a target of gratitude expression and admiration expression would increase close relationship outcomes. It was also argued that these effects would be more substantial among those with high narcissistic tendencies but not among those with high depressive symptoms. Two experimental studies in Turkey (Study 1; N = 127) and the USA (Study 2; N = 218) were conducted. The data were collected from heterosexual individuals between the ages of 18 and 22 and have a romantic relationship for at least one month. The results showed that gratitude expression increased relationship commitment in Studies 1-2. However, contrary to the hypothesis, as depressive symptoms increased, gratitude expression strengthened relationship satisfaction in Study 2. The theoretical and applied implications of the findings were discussed.