Unraveling the Web of Marital Well-Being: Associations Among Relationship Quality, Emotion Regulation, and Cognitive Flexibility

This study aims to explore the associations among relationship quality, cognitive flexibility, cognitive emotion regulation, and subjective well-being in married individuals in Turkey. Using a cross-sectional correlational design, we collected data from 1,013 married participants (mean age = 40.65; 52.5% male). Results indicated that relationship quality was positively associated with subjective well-being, cognitive flexibility, and adaptive emotion regulation strategies and negatively associated with maladaptive emotion-regulation strategies. Cognitive flexibility and adaptive emotion-regulation strategies were positively associated with subjective well-being, whereas maladaptive strategies were negatively associated. Mediation analyses revealed significant indirect associations between relationship quality and subjective well-being through cognitive flexibility and both adaptive and maladaptive emotion-regulation strategies. These findings highlight patterns of association among relational and cognitive-emotional variables in marital well-being and may inform future research and clinical practice.