Supervisors info:
Αντωνία Παπαστυλιανού, Καθηγήτρια Κοινωνικής Ψυχολογίας, ΕΚΠΑ
Αγγελική Γαζή, Επίκουρη Καθηγήτρια Ψηφιακών Μεθόδων, Τμήμα Επικοινωνίας, Μέσων και Πολιτισμού, Πάντειο Πανεπιστήμιο Κοινωνικών και Πολιτικών Επιστημών
Ευαγγελία Κούρτη, Ομότιμη Καθηγήτρια Κοινωνικής Ψυχολογίας και ΜΜΕ, ΕΚΠΑ
Summary:
Conflict that occurs between partners in romantic relationships is one of the most common types of interpersonal conflict. Conflict in a relationship is defined as any type of disagreement, heated confrontation, or difference of opinion and ideology between romantic partners in a relationship. Conflict in romantic relationships occurs when individuals in a relationship display behaviors of unwarranted suspicion and jealousy toward the other partner's activities. However, social media use by partners has been described as a means of escalating conflict in romantic relationships, with suspicion and doubt in romantic relationships increasing through partner social media use (Halpern et al., 2017) . The purpose of the study is to investigate the effects of social media use on romantic relationship conflicts, while examining the effect of the mediating factors of jealousy, partner monitoring, and infidelity on this phenomenon. The present study was conducted on a sample of 78 people, namely people over the age of 18, who were in a relationship for a satisfactory period of time. The research questions asked were 1) whether social media use is associated with conflict in romantic relationships, 2) whether social media use in romantic relationships is associated with jealousy, partner stalking, and infidelity, 3) whether jealousy of a partner's social media activities is associated with conflict in romantic relationships, 4) whether following a romantic partner on social media is associated with conflict in romantic relationships, 5) whether infidelity in social media networking is associated with conflict in romantic relationships and 6) whether jealousy, partner monitoring, and infidelity mediate the association between social media use and conflict in romantic relationships. The study confirmed that jealousy is a significant mediating factor between social media use and conflict in romantic relationships. Notably, the study revealed that monitoring and infidelity were not mediators of the relationship of social media use to conflict although they were associated with both social media use and conflict in romantic relationships. Finally, it was found that in terms of how to deal with conflict, people who use social media heavily and develop high levels of jealousy and feel they are experiencing infidelity adopt domineering tendencies when conflicting with their partner rather than avoidant, compromising attitudes , retreat or separation.
Keywords:
social media, romantic relationship conflicts, jealousy, infidelity, partner control
