Emotional intimacy in romantic relationships: A comparison of European and Chinese Canadian students

Three studies compared romantic intimacy in European and Chinese Canadian students. In Study 1, participants of European and Chinese ethnicity completed questionnaires assessing romantic intimacy, passion, commitment, intimacy with parents, gender traits and beliefs, attachment style, and self-monitoring. As predicted, Chinese Canadians were significantly lower than European Canadians in romantic intimacy. This cultural difference appeared to be associated with the more sex-typed gender beliefs of Chinese Canadians. None of the other variables examined warranted further consideration as possible mediators of the culture-intimacy association. Study 2 found that Chinese Canadian dating partners reported experiencing less romantic intimacy in their current relationship than did European Canadian dating partners. Chinese Canadians' greater gender-role traditionalism, attachment anxiety, and less relationship satisfaction appeared to be important for understanding their relatively lower intimacy. A number of other variables assessed in Study 2---commitment, the Big Five personality traits, attachment avoidance, and horizontal/vertical individualism and collectivism---were not associated with the cultural difference in intimacy. In addition, Chinese Canadian relationships were somewhat more likely to terminate in the three months following the main study. Relationship termination was associated with reduced intimacy at the outset. Study 3 replicated the finding that Chinese Canadian dating partners report experiencing less intimacy than do European Canadian partners. The difference was again associated with greater gender-role traditionalism. Furthermore, audiotaped conversations between dating partners in Study 3 revealed that European Canadian women and Chinese Canadian men appeared to assume a more active role than their partners in managing the conversation. European Canadian women's management style appeared to facilitate both self-expression and responsiveness in the interaction, suggesting one pathway to enhanced intimacy. Although Chinese Canadian men were similarly responsive, their traditionally masculine management style did not appear to foster self-expression to the same extent. On the basis of the findings of these three studies, I suggest that Chinese Canadians' gender-role traditionalism inhibits self-expression, and therefore intimacy, in heterosexual relationships.