The processes of commitment in premarital romantic relationships: an elaboration of a typology

The purpose of this study was to examine different processes by which commitment to marry changes over time for heterosexual premarital dating partners. The sample consisted of 464 randomly recruited heterosexual dating partners (232 couples) who completed up to nine monthly interviews in a comprehensive longitudinal study of premarital romantic relationships. Previous research has identified two distinct processes of commitment for partners in dating relationships, event-driven and relationship-driven. The current study sought to identify and describe subtypes of these processes of commitment using a retrospective account of changes in commitment in the respondent’s dating relationship from the day it began, and to replicate the subtypes using a more prospective account of changes in commitment in the same relationships over the nine months of the study. The commitment processes were identified by means of cluster analyses using variables derived from a graphing procedure where respondents were asked to graph vi the trajectory of changes in commitment in their relationship over time and to provide accounts of what happened to cause these changes. Results indicated four distinct types of commitment process, two sub-types of the event-driven process and two subtypes of the relationship-driven process. The dramatic event-driven were characterized by dramatic changes in level of commitment, and perceptions of high levels of individual interaction with the social network and negative attributions about the relationship. The conflict-ridden event-driven were characterized by perceptions of high levels of conflict and many downturns in commitment to the relationship. The socially-involved relationship-driven were characterized by perceptions of high levels of dyadic interaction with the social network and by positive attributions about that involvement. The positive-isolated relationship-driven were characterized by perceptions of high levels of dyadic interdependence and positive attributions about their relationship and were also relatively isolated from their social network. A second goal of this paper was to identify relational predictors of the different pathways using commonly recognized relationship dimensions and commitment variables. Results indicated that trust in the partner’s benevolence and the level of conflict perceived in the relationship were particularly useful in predicting commitment process.