View all articles in this issue
Components of Love and Relationship
Satisfaction: Lesbians and Heterosexual Women
Download this article for $1.00 (FREE for Members)
by Claire E. Cusack,
Jennifer L. Hughes,
Rachel E. Cook, - Agnes Scott College
In prior research, relationship satisfaction has been predominantly
researched in a hetero-normative context. This study examines relationship
satisfaction in 90 lesbians and 213 heterosexual women. We did not find
significant differences of relationship satisfaction, commitment, passion,
or intimacy based on sexual orientation. In order to determine whether
age, length of relationship, and living with children predicted relationship
satisfaction, we ran linear regressions. This model was insignificant
for heterosexual women, but length of relationship accounted for 36%
of the variance of relationship satisfaction, p = .27. Regression analyses were
also conducted to determine whether commitment, passion, and intimacy
were predictors of relationship satisfaction. We found that passion and
intimacy were predictors of relationship satisfaction for both lesbians and
heterosexual women, whereas commitment was not significant. Passion
and intimacy accounted for 61% of the variance for heterosexual women,
p < .001, and 77% of the variance for lesbians, p < .001. This research
is interesting because passion and intimacy predict women’s relationship
satisfaction, in both heterosexual and lesbian relationships. Clinical
implications can be drawn to examine these factors of a relationship
in therapy to increase overall relationship satisfaction, regardless of sexual
orientation.
Winter 2012 | Psi Chi Journal of Undergraduate Research (Vol. 17, No. 4, p. 171), published by Psi Chi, The International Honor Society in Psychology (Chattanooga, TN). Copyright, 2012, Psi Chi, The International Honor Society in Psychology. All rights reserved.