AUTHOR=Tartakovsky Eugene 

TITLE=The psychology of romantic relationships: motivations and mate preferences

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Psychology

VOLUME=14

YEAR=2023

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/psychology/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1273607

DOI=10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1273607

ISSN=1664-1078

ABSTRACT=<sec id="sec1001"><title>Introduction</title><p>This study investigates motivations to engage in romantic relationships. We examine the structure of romantic motivations and their connections with personal values and mate preferences.</p></sec><sec id="sec1021"><title>Method</title><p>The study was conducted in Israel among young men and women looking for a romantic partner (<italic>n</italic> = 1,121, 40% male, age 18–30).</p></sec><sec id="sec3001"><title>Results</title><p>Data analysis demonstrated that basic romantic motivations form a circumplex that may be partitioned into four higher-order romantic motivations: love and care, family and children, status and resources, and sex and adventure. The romantic motivations formed a meaningful pattern of connections with higher-order values, thus confirming that context-specific motivations are derived from general motivational goals expressed in values. Personal value preferences and romantic motivations predicted the sought-after partner characteristics over and above sociodemographic variables. Values were indirectly (through romantic motivations) and directly connected to mate preferences.</p></sec><sec id="sec4001"><title>Discussion</title><p>The study advances our understanding of romantic relationships among young people and opens new directions for research and counseling.</p></sec>