Look for these signs of a successful relationship.
Being ‘ready for commitment’ is a clear sign of relationship success, research finds.
Being ready for commitment makes people do the work required to keep a relationship going.
Those who are ‘commitment ready’ are 25 percent less likely to break up over time.
Four common signs of commitment include:
- Your partner makes sacrifices for you, such as changing their schedule, doing thing you like but they don’t and really listening to your problems.
- Making long-term plans for the future that include you both.
- You both have similar perceptions about the relationship, as do your friends and family.
- Real commitments are things that you do. Commitment is usually obvious — watch their behaviour.
Professor Chris Agnew, the study’s first author, said:
“Feeling ready leads to better relational outcomes and well-being.
When a person feels more ready, this tends to amplify the effect of psychological commitment on relationship maintenance and stability.”
The conclusions come from a study of over 400 adults in relationships.
All were asked about their sense of whether this was the right time for a relationship, how satisfied they were with it and how much investment they had made.
The results showed that readiness was strongly linked to commitment.
In other words, people tended to commit to a relationship when they felt ready for it.
However, when they didn’t feel ready, they did not do the work required to keep the relationship alive.
Professor Agnew said:
“People’s life history, relationship history, and personal preferences all play a role.
One’s culture also transmits messages that may signal that one is more or less ready to commit.”
The study will be published in the journal Social Psychological and Personality Science (Agnew et al., 2019).
