A socio-ecological context moderates the association between communication skills and friendship satisfaction: Possible role of relational mobility

Good communication skills facilitate successful interpersonal relationships. However, the specific communication skills (encoding and decoding) required for establishing friendships can vary depending on aspects of the social context. We conducted a two-wave longitudinal study in Japan to investigate the adaptive value of communication skills in different socio-ecological contexts (i.e., different stages of university life). New college students are immersed in a high-level relational mobility environment, where they have a greater range of options for forming new relationships and leaving old ones. Conversely, students beyond their second year experience less relational mobility. Cross-lagged analyses indicated a positive association between decoding skill and friendship satisfaction 3 months later for senior students, who are likely to be in an environment characterised by low relational mobility. However, for first-year students in a high-relational-mobility environment, the association was negative, supporting our hypothesis. Conversely, encoding skill did not demonstrate an association with satisfaction 3 months later. However, it was positively associated with satisfaction at each time point. Another cross-lagged analysis revealed that satisfying relationships helped improve encoding skills. We further explore the socio-ecological aspects related to the adaptive value of communication skills.