View source for Passionate love - How early does it begin?

How early are children capable of falling passionately in love? Theorists disagree. Traditionally, sex and emotions researchers have assumed that passionate love is present almost from birth. At the same time, social psychologists have assumed that passionate love does not appear until puberty. Unfortunately, there is little evidence to help researchers decide just when passionate feelings might appear. This study was designed to begin the difficult problem of determining when passionate love first appears in children. In Hypothesis 1, we proposed that children would be able to experience and describe their passionate feelings as early as three or four years of age. Subjects were 114 boys and 122 girls, ranging in age from 4 to 18. All completed the Juvenile Love Scale (JLS), a child's version of the Passionate Love Scale (PLS), which has been used to measure love in adults. We found that even the youngest of children reported having experienced passionate love. In fact, young children and adolescents received surprisingly similar JLS scores. Boys from 10-13 received the lowest scores. There was no correlation between age, physical maturity, and JLS score. The interaction between Gender and Age was significant, however.<br>
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<i>source: Abstract from the article 'Passionate Love - How Early Does it Begin?' by Elaine Hatfield (PhD), Earle Schmitz (MA), Jeffrey Cornelius (BA) & Richard L. Rapson (PhD); www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1300/J056v01n01_04; Published online: 23 Oct 2008; Journal of Psychology & Human Sexuality, Volume 1, Issue 1; 1988</i>

[[Category:Elaine Hatfield]]
[[Category:Earle Schmitz]]
[[Category:Jeffrey Cornelius]]
[[Category:Richard L. Rapson]]
[[Category:Minors in love]]
[[Category:Verliefdheid bij minderjarigen‏‎]]
[[Category:Research]]
[[Category:Onderzoek]]