Romantic love, intimacy, and depression in heterosexual college women: Does cultural background make a difference

The purpose of this study was to determine if cultural variables, specifically individualism and collectivism, affect American women's perceptions of romantic relationships. Asian American, African American, and Euro-American heterosexual, college women were assessed regarding relationship beliefs, romanticism, emotional dependency on men and relationships, and the importance given to relationships as a source of intimacy and social support. Participants were also given a measure of individualism and collectivism to determine if ethnicity affects women's endorsement of individualism/collectivism and if individualism/collectivism is related to how individuals perceive and experience romantic love and intimacy. A measure of depression was administered to assess the relationship between a romanticized view of love and depression. Results indicated that American college women from different backgrounds were more similar than different in their views, beliefs, and valuations of love and intimacy. The majority of ethnic differences were between the Asian American women and the other two groups. Although both Asian American and African American women indicated that intimacy is more important for relationship success than Euro-Americans, Asian American women indicated that external factors were more important for relationship success and were more romantic and more emotionally dependent on men than African American or Euro-American women. In regards to individualism/collectivism, Asian American women endorsed more collectivism than the other two groups with no differences between African American and Euro-American women. African American women endorsed more individualism than Asian American women. There were no differences between Asian American and Euro-American women's or African American and Euro-American women's endorsement of individualism. It was suggested that acculturation may have played a role in these findings given that most of the Asian American women were first-generation in comparison to the predominantly third or more generation status of the other two groups. Overall findings did not indicate that individualism predicts a more romanticized view of love or that individualists are more likely to meet their intimacy needs in romantic relationships than collectivists. There was also no relationship between a romanticized view of love and depression. These findings have major implications for counseling psychologists working with women as well as for the field itself.