Romantic relationships of never-married young adult couples as a function of level of involvement and gender

Research on romantic relationships can provide a framework to assist couples in establishing harmonious relationships. The present study defined relationship independent variables operationally, examined the attitudes and behaviors of 30 couples who were involved in a romantic relationship, and specified the seriousness of their relationships. Undergraduate evening students at an eastern university, who volunteered to participate in the research, recruited subjects from a pool of their co-workers. The Relationship Inventory (RI), designed to measure attitudes and behaviors within romantic relationships, was administered to 30 heterosexual unmarried couples 18-33 years old. Gender differences were assessed by three levels of involvement: avowed level of commitment, relationship stage, and length of time dating. Factor analysis of the RI yielded four factor scales: Closeness, Congruence, Togetherness, and Ambivalence. While no gender differences were shown for any of the factor scales by commitment, stage, or length, the scales did significantly differ as a function of level of involvement of respondents. More highly committed individuals reported greater Closeness and Togetherness than those less committed. Casual daters reported lower Closeness than those at more serious relationship stages, and lower Togetherness than those who were cohabiting. Respondents who had been dating for 1-12 months were lower on Closeness than those dating longer, and lower on Togetherness than those who had been dating for up to three years, but not from those dating longer. Correlations between the scales and involvement variables showed similar patterns for males and females. Each scale showed significant correlations with several background variables measuring demographic, and current and previous romantic experiences. The patterns of the correlations were similar for males and females; only the positive correlation between Togetherness and size of one\u27s community of residence was significantly higher for males than females. There were no gender differences on any romantic experiences variables. Implications for theory, practice, and research were discussed