Have you ever wondered what the secret to a long lasting romantic relationship is? No, it isn’t mass amounts of sex and giving up everything for your other half. It’s actually friendship. Yes, really.
According to researchers from the Purdue University in Indiana, valuing your friendship with your other half actually helps you to create a relationship that has more commitment, more love and a greater sense of sexual satisfaction.
“Romantic relationships are, at their core, friendships. As such, it may be the case that valuing that aspect of the relationship fortifies the romantic relationship… and that serves as a buffer against breaking up,” said Laura VanderDrift, the lead author of the study.
“It seems likely that placing greater importance on the friendship component of the relationship relative to other components (e.g. sex) may promote lasting relationships,” she added.
Underneath the romance, are you and your man absolute besties?
The researchers wrote in the Journal of Social and Personal Relationships that friendship is a “defining characteristic of love” and that couples should try and cultivate their friendship as well as their romantic relationship.
In order to see the impact that friendship has on romance, the researchers asked couples to fill out questionnaires that were designed to asses the amount of investment they put into their relationship.
Four months later, the couples were contacted again and asked more questions about their relationship.
The study found that people who scored highly on the friendship aspect of their relationship were also more likely to receive high scores in the areas of romance, commitment, love and sexual satisfaction. These couples were also less likely to have broken up during the four month gap in the study.
When it comes to your own relationship, are you and your man BFF?
