Problematic Love Behaviors and Correlated Factors: A Systematic Review with Subgroup Meta-Analysis Including Gender/Sex Moderation.
Level 1 - systematic review of randomized trials
Systematic review and meta-analysis (graded by design analogy, not clinical CEBM)
PubMed 42029817 · doi:10.1007/s10508-026-03420-6
What was done
The authors conducted a PRISMA-guided systematic review and subgroup meta-analysis searching Web of Science, Scopus, PsycInfo, and Medline to map correlates of problematic love behaviors. A total of 102 studies met inclusion criteria and were categorized into manic love (55 studies), emotional dependence (34 studies), and love addiction (13 studies). Subgroup meta-analyses and moderation analyses by percentage of female participants were performed for correlates evaluated in at least three studies.
What was found
The abstract reports no numerical effect sizes, correlation coefficients, or confidence intervals. It reports five significant correlates for manic love, eleven for emotional dependence, and two for love addiction. Low self-esteem was a shared correlate for manic love and emotional dependence, while behavioral addictions were shared by emotional dependence and love addiction. Female-predominant samples showed stronger associations between manic love and both jealousy and relationship satisfaction, whereas samples with higher proportions of men showed a stronger link between love addiction and anxious attachment.
Why it matters
This review distinguishes between three overlapping conceptualizations of problematic love behaviors, clarifying their unique and shared correlates to improve construct validity in relationship research.
Limits
The abstract provides no numerical effect estimates or measures of between-study heterogeneity. The underlying evidence base is correlational, precluding causal inference. Love addiction had comparatively few studies (13), limiting subgroup power, and total individual participant sample size is not reported in the abstract.
Cited by
- contradicts Women are substantially more vulnerable to love addiction or pathological relationship dependency than men.