Skip to main content
Intended for healthcare professionals
Restricted access
Research article
First published October 2007

The Relationship Between Self-Worth and Marital Infidelity: A Pilot Study

Abstract

Marital infidelity is becoming increasingly common in today's marriages. Prior research identifies numerous factors that may provide impetus for cheating on a spouse. Though self-worth has been included as one of many potential variables in several studies, it has not been examined exclusively. We examined the relationship between self-worth and the occurrence of marital infidelity. Three different data collection methods were employed as part of the pilot study in an attempt to identify the most beneficial method for future data collection efforts. In addition, data were analyzed to test for differences in self-worth levels by gender for those who have and have not cheated.

Get full access to this article

View all access and purchase options for this article.

References

Blascovich, J., & Tomaka, J. (1993). Measure of personality and social psychological attitudes. (3rd ed.). Ann Arbor : Institute for Social Research.
Boekhout, B., Hendrick, S., & Hendrick, C. (1999). Relationship infidelity: A loss perspective. Journal of Personal & Interpersonal Loss, 4(2), 97-124.
Goldenburg, J.L., Landau, M.J., Pyszczynski, T., Cox, C.R., Greenburg, J., Soloman, S., et al. (2003). Gender-typical responses to sexual and emotional infidelity as a function of mortality salience induced self-esteem striving. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 29, 1585-1595.
Greeley, A. (1994). Marital infidelity. Society, 31, 9-14.
Noll, J., Trickett, P., & Putnam, F. (2000). Social network constellation and sexuality of sexually abused and comparison girls in childhood and adolescence. Child Maltreatment, 5, 323-338.
Olson, D.H., & DeFrain, J. (2003). Marriages and families: Intimacy, diversity, and strengths, (4th ed.). New York : McGraw-Hill.
Parker, L.O., & Glass, S. (2003). Why she's gotta have it. Essence, 33, 160-165.
Rosenberg, M. (1965). Society and the adolescent self-image. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
Shackelford, T., & Buss, D. (1997). Cues to infidelity. Personality & Social Psychology Bulletin, 23, 1034-1046.
Spencer, J., Zimet, G., Aalsma, M., & Orr, D. (2002). Self-esteem as a prediction of initiation of coitus in early adolescents. Pediatrics, 109, 581-585.
Treas, J., & Gieson, D. (2000). Sexual infidelity among married and cohabitating Americans. Journal of Marriage & The Family, 62, 48-61.
Turner, O. (2000). Our cheating hearts. Psychology Today, 33, 17-18.
Ward, D. (2001). Self-esteem and dishonest behavior revisited. Journal of Social Psychology, 126, 709-713.

Cite article

Cite article

Cite article

OR

Download to reference manager

If you have citation software installed, you can download article citation data to the citation manager of your choice

Share options

Share

Share this article

Share with email
EMAIL ARTICLE LINK
Share on social media

Share access to this article

Sharing links are not relevant where the article is open access and not available if you do not have a subscription.

For more information view the Sage Journals article sharing page.

Information, rights and permissions

Information

Published In

Article first published: October 2007
Issue published: October 2007

Keywords

  1. infidelity
  2. self-worth

Rights and permissions

Request permissions for this article.

Authors

Affiliations

Susan H. Eaves
Misty Robertson-Smith
Mississippi State University

Metrics and citations

Metrics

Journals metrics

This article was published in The Family Journal.

VIEW ALL JOURNAL METRICS

Article usage*

Total views and downloads: 929

*Article usage tracking started in December 2016


Articles citing this one

Receive email alerts when this article is cited

Web of Science: 0

Crossref: 8

  1. The Relationship between Attachment Anxiety and Suspicion of Psycholog...
    Go to citation Crossref Google Scholar
  2. Differences in Motivation to Engage in Sexual Activity Between People ...
    Go to citation Crossref Google Scholar
  3. Extradyadic Sex and Psychological Distress among Married and Cohabitin...
    Go to citation Crossref Google ScholarPub Med
  4. Participation Bias and Social Desirability Effects in Research on Extr...
    Go to citation Crossref Google Scholar
  5. Decision Science, Risk Perception, and Infidelity
    Go to citation Crossref Google Scholar
  6. The Beginning of an Extra-Marital Affair: A Descriptive Phenomenologic...
    Go to citation Crossref Google Scholar
  7. Permission-Giving and Marital Infidelity
    Go to citation Crossref Google Scholar
  8. An Examination of Potential Attractions of Women's Marital Infidelity
    Go to citation Crossref Google Scholar

Figures and tables

Figures & Media

Tables

View Options

Get access

Access options

If you have access to journal content via a personal subscription, university, library, employer or society, select from the options below:

IAMFC members can access this journal content using society membership credentials.

IAMFC members can access this journal content using society membership credentials.


Alternatively, view purchase options below:

Purchase 24 hour online access to view and download content.

Access journal content via a DeepDyve subscription or find out more about this option.

View options

PDF/ePub

View PDF/ePub