Intimacy, passion, and commitment in Chinese and US American romantic relationships

The purpose of the study was to examine the triangular theory of love in Ch ina and the United States. It was predicted that intimacy, passion, and com mitment would increase in both cultures as the relationship becomes more se rious. It was also predicted that intimacy and passion would he higher in r omantic relationships in the US than in China, and that commitment would be higher in China than in the US. Data were collected from 90 Chinese romant ic couples in China and 77 American romantic couples in the United States. Multivariate analysis of variance using summation scorns revealed that comm itment, passion, and intimacy increased as a romantic relationship became m ore serious. Passion was significantly higher in US American couples than i n Chinese couples, but the amount of intimacy and commitment did not vary c ross-culturally (using both summation and dispersion scores). (C) 2001 Else vier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.