Valuing Romantic Relationships: The Role of Family Approval Across Cultures

Research has suggested that individuals lower in self-esteem restrain from fully valuing romantic relationships because of relatively low confidence in positive regard from their partners (i.e., positive reflected appraisals). MacDonald and Jessica (2006) provided evidence that in Indonesia, where family plays an important role in mate selection, low self-esteem also leads to doubts regarding family approval of the relationship that, in turn, places an additional constraint on fully valuing a romantic relationship. In the current research, Study 1 replicated these findings, showing that the positive relationship between self-esteem and value placed on a romantic relationship was mediated by both reflected appraisals and approval from a partner's family in Indonesia but only reflected appraisals in Canada. In Study 2, the relationship between self-esteem and relationship value was mediated by reflected appraisals and approval from own, but not partner's, family in Japan whereas only reflected appraisals played a mediating role in Australia. These data suggest that in cultures involving family in mate selection, placing full value on romantic relationships may be contingent on confidence in both reflected appraisals and family approval of the relationship.