A Dialectical Approach to Rethinking Roommate Relationships

Previous research on the complex interplay between roommate factors and relational satisfaction has offered contradictory findings. This study establishes a typology that accounts for relational satisfaction among first-year college roommates. Drawing from the theoretical framework of Interactional Dialectics and the ideal hypothesis, three roommate types were proposed and analyzed. The results suggest that individuals who share the same roommate type report higher levels of relational satisfaction. Furthermore, this study found that smaller discrepancies between individuals' ideal and actual roommate relationships yielded higher levels of relational satisfaction. Implications and directions for future research on roommate relationships are discussed.