Passionate Love and Anxiety: A Cross-Generational Study

Abstract

This study was designed to assess whether the experience of passionate love would change as a consequence of development throughout adulthood and whether highly anxious people would be especially motivated to seek passionate love relationships. The Passionate Love Scale and the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory were administered to a cross-generational sample (total N = 255) of adolescents, young adults, middle-aged adults, and elderly in the United States. Status of past and present relationships was also determined. Contrary to expectations, no age-related differences were found for overall PLS scores. Moreover, the anticipated correlation between anxiety and passionate love was found only in the adolescent sample. A regression analysis revealed that for all age groups, whether or not a person was currently experiencing a passionate love relationship was the best predictor of scores on the PLS. These findings suggest a reconceptualization of passionate love as a life-span construct, rather than as a phenomenon largely confined to the period of adolescence.