Romantic, Friendship, and Close Relationship Self-Efficacy in Emerging Adulthood: Differences and Similarities

For emerging adults, developing and maintaining close relationships is an important developmental task relevant for well-being. Therefore, it is important to understand and assess relationship self-efficacy (RSE), reflecting one’s confidence in maintaining and managing close relationships. Most previous research on RSE has focused on romantic relationships, but developing work suggests similar processes may occur in friendships and other types of relationships, a key conceptual question. This study randomly assigned 654 US emerging adults to complete measures of RSE for either romantic relationships, friendships, or close relationships (generally), and examined associations with other key correlates (general and social self-efficacy, self-esteem, relationship satisfaction). With minor modifications, measurement invariance testing supported partial invariance up to the scalar level, suggesting items had similar meanings across contexts. Correlations with self and relational constructs were similar across RSE types with minor exceptions. Further research is needed to understand how RSE develops and relationships between different types of RSE.