Relationship satisfaction in cohabiting university students: evidence from the role of duration of cohabitation, loneliness and sex-life satisfaction

ABSTRACT

The increase in cohabitation among university student population raises questions about how satisfied students are within the relationships. However, little information is documented about the contributing factors to relationship satisfaction in cohabiting university student population. In order to fill this gap, we examine the role of duration of cohabitation, loneliness dimensions (family, social and romantic) on relationship satisfaction among cohabiting undergraduates in a Nigerian University. It is a cross-sectional study with a snowball sample of 305 cohabiting students (mean age: 21.50, female: 49%) completing measures of loneliness, sex-life satisfaction, relationship satisfaction together with their demographics. A five-model hierarchical regression analysis determined that duration of cohabitation, family, social and romantic loneliness; and sex-life satisfaction significantly contributed to relationship satisfaction, with social loneliness recording highest contribution. No gender difference was observed in relationship satisfaction. It is concluded that regardless of the gender of cohabiting students, their relationship satisfaction increases as the duration of cohabitation increases; loneliness dimensions decrease; and sex satisfaction increases. Mindfulness, social and sexual skills trainings will be helpful for reducing loneliness and improving social-relationship processes, coupled with students’ ability to handle sexual-related matters.

KEYWORDS:

• Loneliness
• sex life satisfaction
• relationship satisfaction
• cohabiting students

Acknowledgements

The authors specially thanked all the students who willingly contributed in the study. Also, we appreciated the management of Federal University Oye-Ekiti and the Oye-Ekiti community for making the environment conducive for the research.

Authors’ contribution

AML conceptualised the study and CGO was supervised by AML for the data collection. AML wrote the introduction, methods, results and discussion sections.

Disclosure statement

The authors did not report any conflict of interest.