Attachment, infidelity, and loneliness in college students involved in a romantic relationship: the role of relationship satisfaction, morbidity and prayer for partner

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