What makes it difficult to maintain close relations: Evidence from Greece and China

First published February 2, 2021 in Research Articles in PubMed

https://doi.org/10.1177/1474704920987807

Commentary

Maintaining close relationships can be difficult and there are many factors that can cause tensions.

This study recruited a sample of 1,403 participants from China and Greece who were in intimate relationships and categorized 78 difficulties and 13 factors in maintaining intimate relationships. These factors included clinginess, long working hours, and lack of personal time and space.

Clinging was cited as the main cause of problems with female relationships, while bad sex was reported as a more common cause of relationship strain by men.

Declining enthusiasm, bad sex, infidelity, and children were reported to be more important by older participants, while lack of personal time and space, and personality problems were reported to be more important by younger participants.

The factor structure revealed similarities but also differences between the Greek and Chinese cultural contexts. Additionally, there was a significant interaction between sample and gender. For the non-monogamy factor, men scored higher than women in both samples, but they also found that the difference was much more pronounced in the Greek sample.