For romantic couples, love increases over time, a new study suggests

Love does tend to grow over time, but loving each other may not prevent break-up, according to a study conducted by psychologist Susan Sprecher, PhD, of Illinois State University.

"Couples break up because of decreased levels of satisfaction in the relationship--not because they stop loving each other," she says.

Sprecher discovered that satisfaction and commitment were as important or more important than love for couples in their desire to stay together by surveying both partners of 101 heterosexual couples at a Midwestern university. She examined both their actual and perceived changes in love, satisfaction and commitment for each other over a four-year period.

By the end of the study, 59 percent of the couples had ended their relationships. These couples reported decreased levels of satisfaction and commitment before the relationship ended, but said that their love remained unchanged.

"These results suggest that people do not end their relationship because of the disappearance of love," says Sprecher, "but because of a dissatisfaction or unhappiness that develops, which may cause love to stop growing." She also noted that love might not completely end when the relationship ends.

Of the 41 couples who remained together, 71 percent had married. The couples who remained together reported that their love, satisfaction and commitment increased over time. The largest increase was in their commitment for one another.

The study appears in the February issue of the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology (Vol. 76, No. 1).

--P. Willenz

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