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Attachment, Infidelity, and Loneliness in College Students Involved in a Romantic Relationship: The Role of Relationship Satisfaction, Morbidity, and Prayer for Partner

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Abstract

This study examined the mediating effects of relationship satisfaction, prayer for a partner, and morbidity in the relationship between attachment and loneliness, infidelity and loneliness, and psychological morbidity and loneliness, in college students involved in a romantic relationship. Participants were students in an introductory course on family development. This study examined only students (n = 345) who were involved in a romantic relationship. The average age of participants was 19.46 (SD = 1.92) and 25 % were males. Short-form UCLA Loneliness Scale (ULS-8), (Hays and DiMatteo in J Pers Assess 51:69–81, doi:10.1207/s15327752jpa5101_6, 1987); Relationship Satisfaction Scale (Funk and Rogge in J Fam Psychol 21:572–583, doi:10.1037/0893-3200.21.4.572, 2007); Rotterdam Symptom Checklist (De Haes et al. in Measuring the quality of life of cancer patients with the Rotterdam Symptom Checklist (RSCL): a manual, Northern Centre for Healthcare Research, Groningen, 1996); Prayer for Partner Scale, (Fincham et al. in J Pers Soc Psychol 99:649–659, doi:10.1037/a0019628, 2010); Infidelity Scale, (Drigotas et al. in J Pers Soc Psychol 77:509–524, doi:10.1037/0022-3514.77.3.509, 1999); and the Experiences in Close Relationship Scale-short form (Wei et al. in J Couns Psychol 52(4):602–614, doi:10.1037/0022-0167.52.4.602, 2005). Results showed that relationship satisfaction mediated the relationship between avoidance attachment and loneliness and between infidelity and loneliness. Physical morbidity mediated the relationship between anxious attachment and psychological morbidity. Psychological morbidity mediated the relationship between anxious attachment and physical morbidity. The present results expand the literature on attachment by presenting evidence that anxious and avoidant partners experience loneliness differently. Implications for couple’s therapy are addressed. Future research should replicate these results with older samples and married couples.

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Acknowledgments

This research was supported by Grant Number 90FE0022 from the United States Department of Health and Human Services awarded to the last author.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Psychology, University of Minho, Braga, Portugal

    M. Graça Pereira

  2. Suleyman Demirel University, Isparta, Turkey

    Ebru Taysi

  3. Florida State University, Tallahassee, FL, USA

    Fatih Orcan & Frank Fincham

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  1. M. Graça Pereira
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  2. Ebru Taysi
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  3. Fatih Orcan
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  4. Frank Fincham
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Correspondence to M. Graça Pereira.

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Pereira, M.G., Taysi, E., Orcan, F. et al. Attachment, Infidelity, and Loneliness in College Students Involved in a Romantic Relationship: The Role of Relationship Satisfaction, Morbidity, and Prayer for Partner. Contemp Fam Ther 36, 333–350 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10591-013-9289-8

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