Exploring love attitude of young adults: Does culture, gender and age affect it?

Abstract

Forming a romantic relationship (love) or emotional intimacy is one of the most primal needs of the human being. But how they perceive this relationship or their attitude towards love is totally depend upon their own life experiences. The present study explored differences in the love attitude of young adults of G.B. Pant University of Agriculture and Technology, Pantnagar, Uttarakhand, and Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana, Punjab. The sample comprised a total of 400 young adults (200 from G.B. Pant University and 200 from P.A.U who were currently in a romantic relationship) drawn through using the snowball sampling technique. The love attitude Scale (Hendrick & Hendrick, 1986) [8] was applied to explore the differences in the love attitude of young adults. Findings reveal that culture plays a significant role in the love attitude of young adults. Boys showed higher Ludus and maniac attitudes whereas girls showed higher pragmatic, eros, agape, and storge type of love attitude in their relationship. The research also revealed that maturity and education help to change the outlook of young adults towards romantic relationships.