The Link Between Romantic Disengagement and Facebook Addiction: Where Does Relationship Commitment Fit In?

Abstract

Why do couples affirming to stay together until their last breath get physically and/or emotionally disengaged? The contemporary era offers many technological indulgences that can potentially interfere with romantic relationships. The current study examined the link between romantic disengagement and Facebook addiction amongst 417 adult Facebook users who were in a committed romantic relationship. The results revealed that there is a significant positive relationship between romantic disengagement and Facebook addiction, and commitment did not interact with romantic disengagement to protect against Facebook addiction. Essentially, irrespective of commitment, partners who were romantically disengaged were prone to Facebook addiction. The implications of this study are relevant to therapists who consider romantic disengagement especially challenging to treat. The connection between romantic disengagement and Facebook addiction calls for future studies that can decipher the direction of the observed relationship. These findings are limited in scope and interpretation should be done considering the limitations of the study.

Keywords:

• Alternate relationship
• Facebook addiction
• marital disaffection
• social media
• romantic disengagement

Acknowledgement

The author wishes to acknowledge the support of Dr. Vanessa Malcarne (SDSU) and Dr. Georgia Sadler (UCSD).

Author note

Part of this research will be presented at the Western Psychological Association (WPA) conference in Pasadena, California, U.S.A. in 2019.