Having your Cake and Eating it Too: Factors Impacting Life Satisfaction during Extramarital Affairs

• In Event: 090 - Section on Sociology of Sexualities Roundtable Session (one-hour).
  In Refereed Roundtable: Table 11. Families and Intimacy

Abstract

This study investigates those factors which influence the individual’s overall perception of life satisfaction before, during, and after their outside partnerships. Marriage is the most intimate of relationships in our lives and is most often assumed monogamous. Yet results of national probability samples asking about the lifetime incidence and counting only sexual contact reports incidence of infidelity ranging from 13.3% to 37.5% (Havio-Mannila and Kontula 2003; Træen, Holman, and Stigum 2007; Atkins and Kessel 2008). Considering the prevalence of cheating and the preoccupation in America with achieving personal happiness, the question of whether participating in outside partnerships increases life satisfaction is a relevant one (Lyubomirsky, Sheldon, and Schkade 2005). The results of this study on which factors influence the individual’s overall perception of life satisfaction before, during, and after their outside partnerships sheds light on the attitudes and beliefs of those individuals whose outside partnerships are not the result of opportunity or chance, but rather purposefully entered into relationships. The question of whether these outside liaisons brought them great life satisfaction hinges on a multiplicity of factors, including their opinion that such an arrangement is necessary for the continuation of their primary partnership, how often they think about ending their primary partnership, how much they love both their primary and outside partner, the amount of sex with their outside partner, as well as their reasons for initiating such an arrangement. There is also a gender effect, with women perceiving greater life satisfaction during an outside partnership.

Author

• Alicia Walker, University of Kentucky