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CLOSE RELATIONSHIPS RESEARCH: A RESOURCE FOR COUPLE AND FAMILY THERAPISTS
Journal of Marital and Family Therapy, Jan 2004 by Hendrick, Susan S
Love styles and communication were also of central interest in a study by Meeks, Hendrick, and Hendrick (1998), in which 140 dating college couples filled out measures of the following constructs: Love styles; communication (both own self-disclosure and perceived partner self-disclosure); perspective-taking (both own and perceived partner); conflict tactics (both own and perceived partner); and perceived relational competence of the partner. Partners were relatively similar on a number of constructs, including four of the six love styles; and several constructs were related to relationship satisfaction, the dependent variable of interest. In the final regression analysis (using both self scores and perceived partner scores) predicting satisfaction, the significant predictors (in order) were positive love (a combination of Eros, Storge, and Agape; standardized [beta] = .63), the absence of game-playing love (standardized [beta] = -.17), the perception that the partner could take one's perspective (standardized [beta] = . 12), and the absence of one's own hostile conflict tactics (standardized [beta] = -.09), accounting for 58% of the variance in satisfaction.
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Finally, taking a more life-span approach, Montgomery and Sorell (1997) assessed love styles and related constructs (250 adults) in four different age groups, including (a) young (college-aged), never-married adults, (b) married persons under 30 and without children, (c) married persons age 24-50 with children still at home, and (d) married persons age 50-70 with no children remaining in the home. These persons were recruited from community events, churches, and universities. There were a number of differences between the groups, with the greatest differences between the unmarried group and the three married groups. Major differences were that the unmarried persons reported greater game-playing and manic love and less altruistic love than did the married persons. Yet the groups did not differ in passionate love (typically ascribed to young people) or friendship-oriented love (typically ascribed to older people). This is consistent with our own findings that friendship in love is extremely important to young relational partners (S. Hendrick & Hendrick, 1993) and that passion in love is extremely important to older relational partners (Contreras et al., 1996). Montgomery and Sorell themselves noted that "Individuals throughout the life-stages of marriage consistently endorse the love attitudes involving passion, romance, friendship, and self-giving love" (p. 61).
Although the exploration of styles of loving and prediction of relationship satisfaction have been the major concentrations of this research program, we have also explored sexual attitudes within the context of intimate relationships fairly extensively. We have always felt that romantic, partnered love and sexuality (broadly construed) are linked together for most partners in intimate relationships, yet love and sex are for the most part studied separately (S. Hendrick & Hendrick, 1987a). Our beliefs that love and sex, as well as other factors, are all part of what makes relationships satisfying and continuing over time drew us more recently into some new research directions, which I describe briefly.
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