The relationship between conflict resolution styles and psychological symptoms in romantic relationships: Role of gender, relationship status and personality traits

The purpose of this study is to investigate the differences of conflict resolution styles used by individuals who have a romantic relationships based their gender, relationship status and personality traits and to examine the predictive role of these variables on the level of effect of psychological symptoms. The sample of the study consists of 698 (392 women and 306 men) volunteers who have romantic relationships, and aged between 18 and 53. Conflict Resolution Styles Scale, Beck Depression Inventory, Beck Anxiety Inventory, Beck Hopelessness Inventory and Five Factor Personality Scale were used to collect data in the research. In the study, the psychological symptom variable was obtained by the sum of total scores of the Beck Anxiety, Beck Depression and Beck Hopelessness scales. To examine group differences on conflict resolution styles and psychological symptoms, a series of One-Way Multivariate Analysis of Variance (MANOVA), One-Way Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) and Independent Samples T-test were used. Pearson Correlation Analysis was conducted to examine the relationships between personality traits, conflict resolution styles and psychological symptoms. Finally, Hierarchical Multiple Regression Analysis was performed to determine the predictor role of socio-demographic variables, personality traits and conflict resolution styles on the level of psychological symptoms. Study findings show that experiencing high frequency of conflict, being in an unformal relationship, high level of neuroticism, low level of extraversion and an increased use of submission-style conflict resolution were associated with the increased the level of psychological symptoms.