Romance-Themed Novels: Influenced on Relationship Satisfaction

Abstract

This paper was conducted to explore romance-themed novels that influence relationship satisfaction. It further described the perception of the reasons given by participants for reading romance-themed novels, the lived experiences of the participants that made them engage in reading romance-themed novels, and the impacts of reading the romance-themed novels on the relationship satisfaction of the participants. This study utilized the qualitative research method. This study's sixteen (16) participants were selected through a case study method. The researcher’s semi-structured interview guide was used in data gathering through interviews. The thematic analysis of Braun and Clarke was used to analyze the qualitative data. Codes, categories, and common themes were identified from the transcript of in-depth interviews. Ten (10) emergent themes were established from the participants’ responses that were classified under three (3) overarching themes that provided answers to the sub-problems. The emergent themes were extracted from the significant statements of the key participants. For the reasons given by participants for reading romance-themed novels, the overarching theme, Reasons of the Informants in Reading Romance-themed Novels, has five (5) emergent themes that were classified as Align Interest, Entertainment, Social Influence, Educational, and Therapeutic. For the participants' lived experiences that made them engage in reading romance-themed novels, the overarching theme, Lived Experiences in Engaging Reading Romance-themed Novels, has two (2) emergent themes classified as On-time availability and Baseline for real-world situations. For reading romance-themed novels on the relationship satisfaction of the participants, the overarching theme is the Impacts of Participants' Relationship Satisfaction; two (2) emergent themes were created, namely Establishing Strong Emotional Bonds and Enlightened Disposition. The findings and recommendations derived from the study were used to disseminate the positive impact of reading romance-themed novels on students' relationship satisfaction.