Long Distance Relationships

Let’s Spend Some Time Apart: Long Distance Relationships Are Deeper

A study takes a closer look at why absence makes the heart grow fonder.

By Belinda Luscombe @youselessJuly 18, 2013

Absence, according to the latest research, does make the heart grow fonder — as long as there’s videochat, IMing, telephones or texting.

About three million spouses in the U.S. live far each away from each other, even though they’d prefer to live together, and the new study, published in the Journal of Communication, found that the separation did not have such a negative effect on their relationships.

The researchers asked 63 heterosexual couples, half of whom lived together, and half who were in long distance relationships, to keep a diary of one week of interactions with their beloved. The couples were young (mostly college students around age 21) and in love. The ones who lived apart had been separated geographically for an average of 17 months. The researchers, L. Crystal Jiang of City University of Hong Kong and  Jeffrey T. Hancock of Cornell University, found, not surprisingly, that far-flung couples interacted fewer times per day. But these interactions were more meaningful./.../