Conceptions of romantic love among Chicano college students

This is a study of conceptions of romantic love among Chicano college students. The contention is made that existing love research, (primarily in social psychology) by relying on homogeneous class and ethnic samples, does not adequately contextualize love research findings, and therefore, ignores elements of love that may be important to other class and ethnic groups. In particular this study examines the relationship between expressive and instrumental aspects of love and test their saliency for a Chicano sample and their relations to gender. Three different measures of love are used, the Love Questionnaire (Likert format), Bipolar Adjective Checklist, and responses to an open ended question question. Principle components factor analysis of the Love Questionnaire produced 5 components: Care and Responsibility, Sexuality, Able to be True Self, Friendship and Jealousy. The Care and Responsibility demonstrated that instrumental and expressive aspects of romantic love are linked to each other and that these aspects are equally important to women and men. The Bipolar Adjective Checklist, which was used to assess affective aspects of romantic love, produced, through principle components factor analysis, 4 components: Emotional Instability/Insecurity, Self Centered, Long and Strong, and Happiness. These components, taken together, demonstrated that love is seen to encompass both positive and negative emotionality, strong in intensity. In addition the relationship of the following variables to the factor analytic components is assessed: sex, gender self concept, level of acculturation, language, love history, relationship status, intensity of current relationship, and family income. Responses to the open ended question "What are important characteristics of love to you personally?" were content analyzed and 5 themes emerged: Trust, Communication/Sharing, Mutual Respect, Similar Attitudes/Values, and Honesty. Mutual Respect was stated to a significantly greater extent by women than by men. Discussion focuses on the connection of results to the experience of Chicano persons in U.S. society, an experience of subjugation and oppression, and the relationship of women and men to the Chicano family, what is similar and different across the three measures of love, and how love research can be enhanced by considering to a greater extent the connection of individual experience to the social world.