Saying "I love you" for the first time, [2019]

252 undergraduates (212 females; 40 males; Mage = 21.2 years old, Mdnage = 20.0; SDage = 5.2) who were currently involved in a romantic relationship (Mrelationship length = 35.8 months, Mdn = 17 months, SD = 60.0) from the University of Waterloo completed this cross-sectional, online study. Participants first completed measures of self-esteem and agreeableness. In addition, they completed a measure of the perceived risk of being the first to say “I love you.” Then, participants indicated who said “I love you” first in their relationship. Participants who indicated that they were the first to say “I love you” then completed a measure for the reasons why they did so. Similarly, participants who were not the first to say “I love you” completed a measure for the reasons why they refrained from being the first to say it . Participants then answered questions about how much they truly meant it when they told their partner “I love you” for the first time, whether they reciprocated if their partner said it first, and how far into the relationship they were when it happened as well as their confidence in this answer. Finally, participants reported demographics such as age, gender, ethnicity, relationship length, and relationship status. Additional measures included participants’ love for their partner, perceived love from their partner, relationship satisfaction, perceived partner’s self-esteem and agreeableness, attachment style, and trust in partner for exploratory purposes (e.g., to examine zero-order correlations among these variables). University of Waterloo (ORE #31930)