People with more supportive relationships in life tend to have higher levels of life satisfaction. The reason most often given is that relationship quality offers stability and a sense of being supported or loved. Another stream of research, grounded in Self-Determination Theory, suggests that people who pursue goals that are personally meaningful tend to have greater goal success and resulting life satisfaction. From this perspective, the type of motivation an individual has for goal pursuit can influence how persistent and successful they are in achieving the goals . From these two streams of research, it appears that supportive relationships and the pursuit of goals for authentic reasons both matter for life satisfaction. However, research has rarely studied the role of goal motivation as an explanation for the association between the quality of an individual’s relationships and their well-being. Through the lens of Self-Determination Theory, this study explores whether autonomous motivation for goal pursuit mediates the association between the quality of an individual’s personal relationships and their overall life satisfaction. Study findings have implications for the design of programs and policies to promote autonomous goal setting and pursuit in the health domain as well as other life domains (e.g., finance). 

Accepted Oral Presentation