This paper tested why people differ with regard to whether they believe it is possible to find enduring love. Variations were assumed to be due to differences in people’s experiences. Those who experienced dysfunction in their family of origin and who did not have positive relationships role-modelled to them were expected to be less likely to have positive lay beliefs about romantic relationships. Positive lay beliefs, in turn, were hypothesised to impact on dysfunction in own romantic relationships later on in life, which were in turn expected to affect relationship satisfaction. In other words, positive lay beliefs were tested as one potential mechanism through which family dysfunction whilst growing up impacts on relationship dysfunction in later adult life. This paper presents a pilot study (N = 176) which introduces a measure for ‘positive lay beliefs about romantic relationships’, and finds this measure to be associated, as expected, with dysfunction in the family of origin. The main study (N = 435) then tested the full hypothesised model (family-of-origin dysfunction → positive lay beliefs → romantic relationship dysfunction → relationship satisfaction) with structural equation modelling, and found that the model fitted the data very well, confirming the hypotheses. It was concluded that lay beliefs about whether or not it is possible to find enduring love are an important mediator of the effects of family-of-origin dysfunction on later romantic relationship satisfaction.

本文测试了人们为何在是否相信找到持久的爱情方面存在差异。人们认为差异是由于人们经验的差异。那些在原籍家庭中经历过功能障碍并且没有与他们建立榜样的积极关系的人，被认为不太可能对浪漫关系产生积极的外行信念。假设，积极的外行信念会影响生活中后期恋爱关系的功能障碍，从而又会影响关系的满意度。换句话说，积极的外来信念被测试为一种潜在的机制，通过这种机制，家庭功能障碍，同时在成年后的生活中对人际关系功能障碍的影响越来越大。本文提出了一项初步研究（N = 176），该措施引入了一种“对浪漫关系的积极信奉信念”的措施，并且发现该措施与预期的原因有关，与原籍家庭的功能障碍有关。然后，主要研究（N  = 435）通过结构方程模型测试了完整的假设模型（原籍家庭功能障碍→积极外向信念→浪漫关系障碍→关系满意度），并发现该模型与数据非常吻合，证实了这一点。假设。结论是，关于是否有可能找到持久的爱情的外行信念是起源于家庭的功能障碍对以后的浪漫关系满意度的重要中介。