Melanie Reyes

• Doctoral Candidate at Saint Louis University

The willingness to apologize and forgive is robustly associated with relational and personal wellbeing, and thus, it may be worthwhile for children to be taught about the importance of apologies and forgiveness through apology prompting from their parents. However, there is limited research on parental apology prompting, as well as on parental atti...

Given inconsistencies in the literature, we examined the role of relationship quality, past relationship experiences (i.e., prior marital experiences and unmarried cohabitation experiences), and demographic characteristics (i.e., gender and age) in the association between relationship status and health. We analyzed data from the 2010 Married and Co...

Sexual communication can be challenging to initiate. Nevertheless, people with a responsive romantic partner may feel more comfortable with sexual communication. Thus, we examined whether there is an association between partner responsiveness and greater sexual communication, and whether greater sexual communication may potentially mediate associat...

People tend to differ in sociosexual orientation (i.e., attitudes, behaviors, and desires about casual sexual relationships) and the inclination to engage in risky sexual behavior (i.e., unprotected sex with short-term partners). Regarding casual sexual relationships, some people (a) have a more positive attitude about them, (b) desire them more, a...

Since Spring 2021, I have been on the Editorial Board for Personal Relationships as an International Section Peer Mentor. In the International Section, I work to diversify relationship science with a team of relationship scientists. In this role, I have learned more about diversity, and in turn, I have become inspired to reflect on other strategies...

Human beings have a fundamental need to belong (Baumeister and Leary, 1995), and thus we value social connections, including romantic relationships. Although most of the time we desire to stay with our romantic partner ‘forever’, the dissolution of romantic relationships still occurs for several reasons. Romantic relationships remain stable when ro...

Infidelity can have harmful consequences for all those involved. Although prior research has demonstrated some reliable associations between certain personality traits and infidelity, the associations between other personality traits and infidelity are less clear. Moreover, prior research has been limited in addressing the role of partner personali...