Abstract
Most of the previously developed scales addressing infidelity were developed on young samples in dating relationships and with limited couple experience. The present study proposes an instrument to measure the proneness for infidelity among married people with substantial experience as a couple. Specific contexts described by the items, in which unfaithful behavior might occur, were selected from those revealed by previous research on people’s motives of past infidelity. Across two studies (N = 618) we examined the factorial structure and the psychometric characteristics of the Propensity towards Infidelity Scale (PTIS). Results revealed a one-dimensional structure of the PTIS and supported its reliability, its construct, criterion and incremental validity. PTIS emerged as negatively associated with two measures of adherence to moral standards, and positively related to past unfaithful behavior. Furthermore, the new instrument was found to bring a significant contribution in explaining these behaviors beyond two other scales of infidelity intentions.
Highlights
We decided to remove three other items, because they were loaded with a second factor, as they belong to several categories of reasons for infidelity in the classification we adopted, while the other 21 items were loaded with the first factor
The gender differences we found correspond to those derived from previous studies conducted on extramarital relationships, which show that men are more inclined towards unfaithful behavior (Haseli et al 2019)
The analyses concerning the convergent validity of the Propensity towards Infidelity Scale (PTIS) found it to be negatively associated with two dimensions of moral thinking that underpin an ethical opposition to infidelity
Summary
Marital infidelity is one of the most cited causes for divorce (DeMaris 2013; Apostolou et al 2019) and one of the most commonly cited reasons why couples seek therapy (Abrahamson et al 2012; Leeker and Carlozzi 2014; Josephs 2018; Fife et al 2008). Infidelity can lead to conflict and divorce (Gordon et al 2005), including sexual and physical abuse (Conroy 2014; Stieglitz et al 2012), or can take the resources of wives and children (Conroy et al 2018), and children exposed to parental infidelity are often adversely affected (Thorson 2009)
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