Annual of social work, Vol. 32 No. 1, 2025.
Original scientific paper
CAN PARTNERS' COMMON STRATEGIES FOR THE DIGITAL ENVIRONMENT REDUCE THE NEGATIVE EFFECT OF INTERNET USE ON INTIMATE RELATIONSHIP QUALITY?
Roberta Matković
orcid.org/0000-0002-6967-4148
; Public Health Institute of Split Dalmatia County Department of Mental Health
*
Ajana Löw Maštruko
Sanja Narić
; Psihijatrijska bolnica sv. Ivan Barbot
* Corresponding author.
Abstract
In today’s digital era, when digital content has permeated all aspects of life, it is essential to determine how the interest and attention that partners invest in digital content affect the quality of their relationship, which patterns of use pose the greatest risk, and which may contribute to positive relationship quality. Drawing on the recent relational maintenance model of positive relationship-focused behaviors (Coundouris, Tyson and Henry, 2021), this study aims to examine how partners' use of social media, messaging applications, and partners’ common strategies for the digital environment contribute to both the positive and negative dimensions of relationship quality. The study was conducted on a probability cluster sample of 903 respondents with an average age of 44.53 years. Two hierarchical regression analyses were performed, explaining 12% of the variance in the positive dimension of relationship quality and 7.1% of the variance in the negative dimension of relationship quality. The findings indicate that better household financial conditions, less partner’s daily social media use, more frequent discussions about social media usage, and more mutual messaging between partners contribute to a higher positive dimension of relationship quality. On the other hand, being female, poorer household financial conditions, and less discussion about social media usage contribute to a higher negative dimension of relationship quality. These results provide a framework for promoting relationship quality and offer insights into digital behaviors that can guide and enhance counselling and family interventions, making the study particularly relevant for social work practice by helping practitioners strengthen relationship functioning in their direct work with clients.
Keywords
positive relationship-focused behaviors; positive and negative dimension of relationship quality, social networks, messaging apps; relational maintenance strategies; partner strategies for the digital environment
Hrčak ID:
344719
URI
Publication date:
1.2.2026.
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