SATISFACTION IN LESBIAN RELATIONSHIPS

ABSTRACT. A questionnaire study of 127 lesbians tested hypotheses from the social psychological literature about factors associated with relationship satisfaction. In general, lesbians in the sample reported fairly high levels of satisfaction and love in their current relationship. Results indicated that satisfaction was more strongly related to characteristics of the relationship itself than to the individual attitudes or background characteristics of individual partners. In particular, greater satisfaction was associated with equality of in-volvement and equality of power in the relationship. Some evidence was also found that similarity was associated with greater satisfaction. Love relationships are a key ingredient in personal well-being. A recent survey of a cross-section of Americans (Freedman, 1978) found that most people, both homosexual and heterosexual, considered love to be extremely important to their overall happiness. Further evidence of the importance of intimate relationships comes from a study by Bell and Weinberg (1978) that asked a large sample of lesbians how important it was to them to have a permanent relationship with one partner. One quarter of the lesbians said tha