Romantic Love is Not Only “Romantic”: A Grounded Theory Study on Love in Romantic Relationships

Abstract

With romantic love having long been studied with a focus on the romantic component and how it is expressed, little is known about what love is as a feeling in romantic relationships from the recipient’s perspective. This study aimed to understand love as a feeling in romantic relationships by analyzing open-ended responses about what makes people feel loved by their romantic partner in a college sample of 462 undergraduates (age: M = 18.93, SD = 2.86; 77.92% female) and a community sample of 75 adults (age: M = 32.36, SD = 16.53; 93.18% female) using grounded theory methodology. Findings indicated that Positive responsiveness (to needs), Authentic connection, and A sense of stability were three core elements of love in romantic relationships. By comparing these three core categories (and their underlying categories and concepts) across both samples and demographic characteristics (i.e., gender, race, and household income), this study also provided preliminary evidence on the generalizability of this three-component framework: (1) all (core) categories were overlapping across two samples, and all concepts generated in the small community sample were a subset of those generated in the large college sample; (2) all categories and core categories were overlapping across gender, race, and household income, with “positive responsiveness” being the most common component across demographics consistently. This three-component framework of romantic love is consistent with love’s multifaceted nature, serves as an initial step toward integrating existing theoretical frameworks about love, and, if replicated, would inform relationship-focused interventions.