Love Styles of Three Generations of Women

ABSTRACT

While research on interpersonal love is growing, there is a relative dearth of literature on the experience of love across generations. This study investigated the love styles held by three generations: 48 female college students, their mothers, and their maternal grandmothers. The six love styles examined were: Eros (passionate love), Ludus (game-playing love), Storge (companionate love), Pragma (practical love), Mania (possessive, dependent love), and Agape (selfless love). Love styles were assessed by the 42-item Love Attitudes Scale (LAS). Results indicated little love styles similarity among generations. Significant generational differences were found on four love styles: Eros, Storge, Pragma and Agape. However, as expected, mothers and grandmothers, don't differ in the degree of agreement with the various love styles, except with Pragma with grandmothers showing more practical love than mothers.

Key Words:

• Family
• generations
• love styles