A Latent Profile Analysis of Need Fulfillment in Romantic Relationships

ABSTRACT Do people have their psychological needs fulfilled uniformly or unevenly within romantic relationships? We measured fulfillment of seven psychological needs and used latent profile analysis to identify potential heterogeneity in need fulfillment (NF) across two convenience samples: a sample of dating college students (Study 1: N = 688) and a sample of cohabiting participants recruited from Prolific (Study 2: N = 294). Five profiles consistently emerged: low fulfillment of all needs except independence (independence NF driven); greater fulfillment of personal needs than relational needs (personal NF driven); greater fulfillment of relational needs than personal needs (relational NF driven); moderate fulfillment of all needs (moderate NF); and high fulfillment of all needs (high NF). All these profiles differed from one another in relationship commitment and satisfaction, except that the personal NF driven profile was not significantly different from the relational NF profile in commitment in both studies and in relationship satisfaction in Study 2. The current research introduces a novel use of a person‐centered approach to advance understanding of individual differences in need fulfillment in romantic relationships.