Association between time-zone differences and commitment and satisfaction in long-distance relationships in unmarried Lebanese women

Abstract

The current research studies the association between time-zone differences and commitment and satisfaction in long-distance relationships in unmarried Lebanese women. Due to the increase in long-distance relationships worldwide, and the lack of previous literature on the threatening barrier of time-zone differences, it is vital to understand better how time difference is associated with commitment and satisfaction in LDRs. In addition, given Lebanon’s government corruption, unemployment, scarcity of available jobs, weak economic growth, and poor educational institutions, people, mostly the youth, are choosing to migrate from Lebanon. This research distributes an online survey to 48 unmarried Lebanese women in long-distance relationships. The participants are divided into two groups (less than two hours’ time difference between partners and more than three hours). The research questions of this study were constructed to understand (1) whether there is an association between time-zone differences and commitment, (2) whether there is an association between time-zone differences and satisfaction, (3) if the frequency of contact through communication technology is associated with commitment, (4) if the frequency of contact through communication technology is associated with satisfaction, (5) if the frequency of sleep is associated with commitment levels, and (6) if the frequency of sleep is associated with satisfaction levels. The results demonstrate no statistical significance between time zone and commitment (pvalue=0.371) and satisfaction (p-value=0.786). There is also no statistical significance between frequency of contact and commitment (p-value=0.062); however, there is an association between frequency of contact and satisfaction (p-value=0.003). Finally, no statistically significant results exist between frequency of sleep and commitment (pvalue=0.577) and satisfaction (p-value=0.701). Overall, commitment and satisfaction in unmarried Lebanese women are not associated with time-zone differences. This research, however, has found that communication technology’s frequency influences satisfaction levels between partners.