So where do you see this going? The effects of commitment asymmetry and asynchrony on relationship satisfaction and break‐up

Abstract

We test the contribution of multiple types of romantic partners' commitment asymmetry (discrepancies between partners' commitment at a single time point) and asynchrony (discrepancies in the progression of commitment over time) to later relationship satisfaction and breakup. In three dyadic studies (N = 6,960 couples) over months (Study 1), days (Study 2), and years (Study 3), commitment asymmetry and asynchrony consistently did not predict satisfaction or breakup when controlling for commitment scores of individuals and their partners. Only one's own commitment and proportion of downturns in commitment (when participants reported lower commitment than the previous time point) consistently predicted satisfaction across all three studies. For breakup, women's (but not men's) commitment was consistently negatively associated with breakup and proportion of downturns was consistently positively associated with breakup. Our findings indicate that, contrary to some significant findings in prior research, commitment asymmetry and asynchrony are not indicative of future relationship outcomes.