Generally, authentic people have satisfying close relationships and greater well-being (Rivera et al., 2019). Having satisfying friendships is important for personal well-being and a fulfilling life (Anderson & Fowers, 2020). Thus, in three pre-registered studies, I tested whether authenticity is related to well-being through friendship satisfaction among single and partnered people. In Study 1 (N=326), singles’ authenticity was associated with having satisfying friendships, which in turn predicted greater general well-being (i.e., life satisfaction and purpose in life), but not singlehood-specific outcomes. In Study 2 (N = 623), I examined whether this finding extends to partnered people’s well-being and found that authenticity was associated with greater friendship satisfaction, which in turn predicted greater life satisfaction and relationship status satisfaction among both single and partnered individuals. Interestingly, this process for relationship status satisfaction did not differ between single and partnered individuals. To examine whether this pattern persisted over time, I conducted a longitudinal test in Study 3 using data from the Rochester Adult Longitudinal Study (Whitbourne et al., 2009), with analytic samples ranging from 196 to 244 participants depending on the model. Full Information Maximum Likelihood estimation was used to handle missing data across the 25-year study period. Authenticity was longitudinally associated with greater well-being after 25 years through more satisfying friendships. Results identify a personality trait meaningful for relationships and well-being and provide evidence for a possible mechanism.
