Although healthy romantic relationships are clearly imperative for the well-being of individuals, families, and communities, there are relatively few studies specific to the topic. The lack of literature may be due in part to the difficulty in defining the subjective term, “healthy relationship”. Components of a healthy relationship that are agreed upon by most researchers include commitment of the couple, emotional and sexual fidelity, intimacy, and effective communication

British psychoanalyst John Bowlby was interested in the emotional bond between infants and their primary caregiver, and the profound distress infants experience when separated from this caregiver – whom he called an attachment figure. An infant’s primary attachment figure is most often his or her birth mother, but can be an alternative caregiver to whom the infant makes a life-sustaining emotional bond. Bowlby developed his attachment theory from his original research into th