Abstract
Relationship partners affect one another’s health outcomes through their health behaviors, yet how this occurs is not well understood. To fill this gap, we present the Dyadic Health Influence Model (DHIM). The DHIM identifies three routes through which a person (the agent) can impact the health beliefs and behavior of their partner (the target). An agent may (a) model health behaviors and shape the shared environment, (b) enact behaviors that promote their relationship, and/or (c) employ strategies to intentionally influence the target’s health behavior. A central premise of the DHIM is that agents act based on their beliefs about their partner’s health and their relationship. In turn, their actions have consequences not only for targets’ health behavior but also for their relationship. We review theoretical and empirical research that provides initial support for the routes and offer testable predictions at the intersection of health behavior change research and relationship science.
| Original language | English (US) |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 3-34 |
| Number of pages | 32 |
| Journal | Personality and Social Psychology Review |
| Volume | 26 |
| Issue number | 1 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - Feb 2022 |
Bibliographical note
Funding Information:We would also like to thank Drs. Paula Pietromonaco, Urte Scholz, and Allison Farrell for providing feedback on an earlier version of this manuscript prior to manuscript submission. The author(s) received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2021 by the Society for Personality and Social Psychology, Inc.
Keywords
- close relationships
- health behavior change
- modeling
- social control
- social influence
PubMed: MeSH publication types
- Journal Article
- Review