A Comparison of Mothers and Childfree Women on the Common Characteristics of Romantic Love

Shelly Volsche

SAGE Open, 2017, vol. 7, issue 1, 2158244017701529

Abstract: Since 2009, de Munck, Korotayev, and Khaltourina’s pioneering survey has been used to investigate the cognitive qualities of love across cultures, including Russia, Lithuania, the United States, and China. To date, this survey has not been used to probe these values at a subcultural level. Mothers and childfree women were surveyed with an expanded version of the original survey designed to target potential variations in ideology based upon parental status. Both mothers and childfree women reportedly adhere to the cultural norms of romantic love previously found in the United States, but childfree women were more likely to value pragmatic characteristics of love ( p = .011). Despite this, both groups disagreed with the statement “Career is more important than love,†suggesting norms of romantic love overcome feminist ideals. This is further supported by agreement from both groups on the previously identified “core attributes†that correspond with Fisher’s affective traits of romantic love.

Keywords: childfree women; mothers; romantic love; feminism (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2017
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:sae:sagope:v:7:y:2017:i:1:p:2158244017701529

DOI: 10.1177/2158244017701529

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