An investigation of the mediating roles of emotional intelligence and mindful-awareness on the association between perfectionism and romantic relationship satisfaction in early adulthood

The goal of this study is to propose a new model for romantic relationship satisfaction of young adults. To achieve this goal, two different studies were carried out. In the Study I, it was examined by meta-analysis whether romantic relationship satisfaction differs according to gender. 95 effect sizes of 67 individual studies were included and 289.708 (163.058 female and 126.650 male) sample size was reached. As a result of meta-analysis, it was revealed that gender had no significant impact on romantic relationship satisfaction and culture was not a moderator in the relation between gender and romantic relation satisfaction. In the Study II, mediation analyzes were conducted with independent of gender. In this model, the mediating roles of mindful-awareness and emotional intelligence were considered. This study was conducted with 421 university students [294 female (69.8%) and 127 male (30.2%)], and "Relationship Assesment Scale", "Multidimensional Perfectionism Scale", "Trait Emotional Intelligence Questionnaire–Short Form", and "Mindful Attention Awareness Scale" were used. The data were analyzed by using the regression based bootstrapping technique. As a result, it was revealed that emotional intelligence and mindful-awareness have a significant partial mediation effect between perfectionism and romantic relationship satisfaction. That is to say, the decrease in perfectionism might increase the levels of emotional intelligence and mindful-awareness and consequently these increases might enhance the romantic satisfaction in young adults. However, as a result of partial mediation, perfectionism might directly reduce the satisfaction of romantic relationships. Study I and II were discussed within the framework of relevant literature and recommendations were also discussed in this study.