Communicating with back burners among college students according to relationship status and love styles

ABSTRACT

Back burner relationships are prospective sexual/romantic partners that individuals communicate with for purposes of developing a sexual and/or romantic relationship. This study analyzed 762 college students with regard to sex, relationship status, love styles, and numbers of back burners. Men reported more back burners with whom they sometimes communicated in a romantic/sexual way than did women, and singles and casual daters averaged more of these back burners than did those in committed relationships. Numbers of back burners with whom participants communicated with in a strictly platonic way did not differ by sex or relationship status. Having a more ludic love style corresponded to having more total back burners, while increased storge corresponded to fewer romantic/sexual back burners. Sex and/or relationship status may matter less to the wholesale practice of maintaining back burners and more to the nature of the communication with one’s back burners.

KEYWORDS:

• Back burners
• casual sexual relationships
• love styles
• relationship status
• relationship communication

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Jayson L. Dibble

Jayson L. Dibble (Ph.D., Michigan State University) is a Professor and Chairperson in the Department of Communication Studies at Hope College.

Narissra M. Punyanunt-Carter

Narissra M. Punyanunt-Carter (Ph.D., Kent State University) is a Professor in the Department of Communication Studies at Texas Tech University.

Michelle Drouin

Michelle Drouin (D.Phil., Oxford University) is a Professor in the Department of Psychology at Indiana University–Purdue University Fort Wayne.