The conceptualization of marital commitment: An integrative analysis

Although theoretical statements regarding the conceptualization of marital commitment abound in the literature, no research has attempted to compare these conceptualizations empirically. Six studies involving 1,787 participants explored the conceptual structure of marital commitment through a variety of empirical methods. Results suggested the existence of 3 primary dimensions of marital commitment: an attraction component based on devotion, satisfaction, and love, a moral-normative component based on a sense of personal responsibility for maintaining the marriage and on the belief that marriage is an important social and religious institution, and a constraining component based on fear of the social, financial, and emotional costs of relationship termination. These factors most strongly resemble the three dimensions proposed by M. P. Johnson (1991) but also appear to represent the general features of interpersonal commitment described in most theoretical treatments of the construct and correspond well with couples' personal accounts of what it feels like to be in a committed relationship.