This study examined the relation between relationship satisfaction and variables representing the contextual, investment, and problem-solving models of intimate relationships. Ss were 75 gay and 51 lesbian cohabiting couples. There wgre very few instances in which mean levels of model variables differed significantly for gay and lesbian couples. The strength of the correlates of rela- tionship satisfaction rarely differed between gay and lesbian couples. Relationship satisfaction was related to variables from each of the 3 models. Support was obtained for a mediatioiial model that proposed ordered linkages among variables from the 3 models. Much of the current research examining homosexuals' and heterosexuals' satisfaction with {heir intimate relationships is guided by one of three conceptual models: the contextual model, the investment model, and the problem-solving model. In their contextual model, Bradbury and Fincham (1988) pro- posed that appraisals of relationship s~tfisfaction are related to individual difference variables that filter relationship informa- tion in one of two contexts. In the proximal context, individual difference variables influence a partner's subjective state in the moments immediately preceding a given partner behavior and are specific to the relationship (e.g., attributions regarding a particular relationship event). In the distal context, individual difference variables are relatively stable traits linked to general interpersonal competence (e.g., expressiveness). In support of this model, evidence from homosexual and heterosexual re- spondents has shown that proximal and distal individual dif- ference variables are concurrently related to relationship satis- faction and prospectively predict changes in relationship satis- faction (Bentler & Newcomb, 1978; Bradbury & Fincham, 1988; Kelly & Conley, 1987; Kurdek, 199 lb, in press). In her investment model, Rusbult (1983) proposed that per- sons satisfied with their relationships see many rewards asso- ciated with their relationships (e.g., companionship), perceive few costs of being in their relationships (e.g., low conflict), and evaluate their relationships as exceeding an internal standard of what a good relationship should be like. Supportive evidence for this model comes from studies of concurrent and longitu- dinal predictors of relationship satisfaction in samples of both homosexual and heterosexual subjects (Duffy & Rusbult, 1986; Kurdek, 1991b, in press; Kurdek & Schmitt, 1986b; Rusbult, 1983).