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We investigated the relationships between vertical and horizontal collectivism and commitment to a dating relationship, and the mediating effect of romantic attachment styles (i.e., anxiety and avoidance) on these proposed direct associations. Participants were 191 mainland Chinese university students, of whom 94 were men and 97 were women. They completed anonymous questionnaires regarding their degree of vertical and horizontal collectivism, commitment to a dating relationship, and romantic attachment style. Results showed that vertical collectivism, romantic attachment, and commitment to a dating relationship were significantly associated, but no similar correlations were found for horizontal collectivism. As predicted, romantic attachment mediated the effect of vertical collectivism on commitment to a dating relationship. Implications of the present findings for future research are discussed, as well as potential interventions for improving the quality of romantic relationships.
Keywords: vertical collectivism, horizontal collectivism, romantic attachment, romantic commitment, romantic relationships, dating relationships.
Researchers have established that collectivism is related to individuals' degree of commitment (e.g., to a company), that it has a stronger impact on commitment in countries with collectivism (Felfe, Yan, & Six, 2008), and that it is higher among individuals in countries that are more collectivistic than individualistic (Kirkman & Shapiro, 2001; Luthans, Avey, Avolio, Norman, & Combs, 2006). However, to our knowledge, in only one study have researchers focused on investigating the effect of collectivism on relationship commitment (Bejanyan, Marshall, & Ferenczi, 2015). These researchers found that collectivism was associated with stronger family ties, which increased commitment.
Recently, the absolute cultural distinction between collectivism and individualism has been criticized (Brewer & Chen, 2007), as some cross-cultural researchers have shown that the individualism and collectivism dimensions of culture are each multidimensional (Brewer & Chen, 2007; Hardin, 2006). Although vertical and horizontal collectivism both emphasize the interpersonal relationship, they differ in that vertical collectivism focuses on the relationship with parents, whereas horizontal collectivism refers to the relationship with others, such as colleagues. As a reflection of the thriving economy in mainland China over the past few decades, Chinese people who scored higher on collectivism were also found to show a stronger tendency to value equitable competition than were those with a lower score on collectivism (Chen, Meindl, & Hunt, 1997; He, Chen, & Zhang, 2004), suggesting that Chinese people embrace...