This research extends previous work demonstrating that individuals with intimacy goals experience greater relationship satisfaction by examining three distinct processes that may underlie this association (e.g., engaging in intimacy-conducive interactions with their partners, having intimacy-focused partners, perceiving partners as intimacy focused). The study included 100 female college students who completed measures of intimacy goals, patterns of relationship interaction, perceptions of their partner’s intimacy goals, and relationship satisfaction. Their dating partners also completed the intimacy goals measure. Results indicate that individuals with intimacy goals engage in particular patterns of interaction and perceive their partners as having intimacy goals, although there was no association between own and partner’s goals. Moreover, women’s perceptions of their partners’ intimacy goals partially mediated the intimacy goals-relationship satisfaction link.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.