14 DAY TRIAL // The conclusions of a new study conducted by researchers at the University of Porto, in Portugal, reveal that people who regularly attend church, who are married, and who are at the center of harmonious social ties are more likely to report satisfaction with their love lives than peers who do not engage in such actions. The study appears in a recent issue of the journal Applied Research in Quality of Life.
The relationship between an individual's age and their satisfaction with their love life has been very little researched over the years. The new study analyzed data collected from 1,284 adult Portuguese test participants, aged from 18 to 90, using the Satisfaction with Love Life Scale, PsychCentral reports.
For the purposes of this study, love was defined as the desire to enter into a relationship with another person, maintain it, and improve it over time. Love life satisfaction was interpreted as referring to how much an individual enjoyed love.
The research, led by scientists Félix Neto and Maria da Conceição Pinto, found that a series of factors influence love satisfaction, including one's religious involvement and marital status, their love style – which can be either playful or manipulative – and their age. The team found similar levels of satisfaction across all age groups: 18 to 30 years old, 31 to 59, and 60 to 90.
“In contrast to much past investigation on love, our research used a sample of adults representing a full range of age. Focusing on exploration of age variations in satisfaction with love life, the research displayed a comprehensive view of differences and similarities across the adult life span,” Neto and Pinto explain.