Results of a positive affect intervention for male couples: Change over time and effects on mental health.

OBJECTIVE

Positive affect (PA) builds personal resources, buffers the impact of adverse experiences, and improves coping-which contributes to improved mental health. Positive psychological interventions (PPIs) leverage these health-promotive properties of PA, but it remains unclear whether PPI benefits for mental health (e.g., depression, anxiety) extend to a relationship context. And this is potentially critical among same-sex couples due to their excess burden of stress.

METHOD: This article reports efficacy of a PPI for male couples (N = 128 dyads), adapted from an existing efficacious PPI, which was used as a control condition for a randomized controlled trial of a couple-based HIV prevention program (2017-2021). Couples completed five equally spaced assessments over 1 year, and here we examined effects on PA and the impact of changes in PA on mental health. Between baseline and the first follow-up, couples were randomized to (a) a couple-based HIV prevention/relationship enhancement intervention (active condition from the larger randomized controlled trial) or (b) a couple-based PPI called Positive Emotion Orientation for Nurturing Your Relationship.

RESULTS

We observed no significant (p < .05) change in PA in either condition across 12-month follow-up. Results from longitudinal actor-partner interdependence models suggested that higher PA corresponded to lower anxiety and depression for individuals and their partners. Baseline depression also moderated response to intervention (i.e., individuals with higher depression at baseline showed less improvement in PA over 12-month follow-up-a suppression of improvement).

CONCLUSIONS

Nonsignificant change in PA presents challenges to be resolved in future research regarding the ideal target population and delivery format for Positive Emotion Orientation for Nurturing Your Relationship. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved).