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Romantic attachment styles, mate retention behaviors and romantic jealousy in an iranian sample

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Abstract

This study examined the mediating role of romantic jealousy (cognitive, behavioral, and emotional jealousies) in the relationship between romantic attachment styles and both types of mate retention domains (cost-inflicting and benefit-provisioning mate retention behaviors) in married individuals in Iran. Our sample consisted of 209 married adults. The results showed that: (1) there was a positive correlation between anxious attachment style and both cost-inflicting and benefit-provisioning mate retention behaviors; (2) avoidance attachment style had a negative association with benefit-provisioning mate retention behaviors; (3) three types of romantic jealousy positively mediated the association between anxious attachment style and cost-inflicting mate retention behaviors; (4) the relationship between avoidance attachment style and the cost-inflicting domain was negatively mediated by emotional jealousy.

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Data Availability

The datasets generated and analyses during the current study are available in the figshare repository,https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.14784588

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All authors contributed to the study’s conception and design. Material preparation, data collection, and analysis were performed by Aida Pakray and Gholamreza Dehshiri. The first draft of the manuscript was written by Aida Pakray, and Gholamreza Dehshiri commented on previous versions of the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

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Correspondence to Gholamreza Dehshiri.

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Pakray, A., Dehshiri, G. Romantic attachment styles, mate retention behaviors and romantic jealousy in an iranian sample. Curr Psychol 42, 23947–23957 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-022-03398-z

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