Abstract / Summary
Mental health is embedded in interpersonal contexts, yet little is known about whether psychological modes of functioning can affect the mental health of close others through dyadic processes. Drawing on the Self-centeredness/Selflessness Happiness Model (SSHM), this article examined whether selflessness and self-centeredness were indirectly associated with another person’s mental health through two interpersonal pathways: emotional contagion and functional convergence. Two dyadic studies were conducted among French pairs who knew each other and interacted regularly: a student-close other sample in Study 1 and a general population sample in Study 2. Across both studies, no direct partner effects were found. However, indirect effects emerged via the proposed affective and functional mediators: selflessness was associated with higher partner positive mental health, whereas self-centeredness was associated with lower partner positive mental health and higher partner negative mental health. Additional invariance analyses supported the robustness of these structural paths across samples and relationship types. These findings suggest that selflessness and self-centeredness may have interpersonal implications for mental health through affective and functional mediating pathways.