Talking and Loving: A Cross-Lagged Panel Investigation

A cross-lagged (two-wave) panel study was completed to determine if romantic affect is more predictive of the development of self-disclosure than self-disclosure is predictive of the development of romantic love. A total of 343 college students responded to self-disclosure and love measures during the beginning and end of a 6-week period. For the female sample, the strongest causal association suggests romantic affect precedes self-disclosure. For males the results were in the opposite direction, indicating that self-disclosure leads to love. These data support the necessity of future research to delineate differences in the interpersonal process of romantic affiliation for males and females.