Beyond the Coexistence of Tradition and Modernity: Mapping Hybrid Intimacy Repertoires in Canada

Contemporary Western societies navigate tensions between traditional intimacy repertoires tying love and sexuality to a soul mate and modern repertoires revisiting affective and sexual exclusivity, decoupling them from a single partner. We used latent class analysis on survey data from 3988 Canadian adults to map patterns across two romantic indicators (that romantic love has the power to overcome all obstacles, and that there can be only one true love in a person’s life), and two detraditionalized sexuality and relationship indicators (attitudes toward consensual non-monogamy and uncommitted sex), and to examine how such patterns align with relationship expectations, normative frameworks, and sociodemographic characteristics. Five classes emerged. All-In Modern (18.3%) and All-In Romantic (14.5%) were minority extremes; three hybrid classes dominated: Mainstream Romantic (44.4%), Monogamy-Leaning Modern (16.4%; accepts uncommitted sex but rejects CNM), and CNM-Leaning Modern (6.5%; endorses CNM but rejects uncommitted sex). External validators showed systematic gradients: romantic classes reported the highest destiny beliefs and moral traditionalism and the lowest gender-egalitarian attitudes, whereas modern classes showed the opposite. Growth and work beliefs varied less uniformly, with All-In Romantic scoring highest on intimacy-as-work. Class membership was socially patterned, with modern classes younger and more gender/sexuality diverse and romantic classes older; differences by region and socioeconomic position were also observed. Overall, intimacy repertoires are best described as structured hybridity: combinations of romantic meaning and detraditionalized sexuality, anchored in broader moral and relational frameworks.