Romantic and Sexual Relationship, Marital Commitment and Internet Extramarital Relationships: Structural Equation Modeling

In the recent decades, with the development of communication technology, new types of extramarital relationships have come to pass. This research was aimed to suggest a model to investigate the interaction between marital commitment, romantic and sexual relationship and their effect on internet extramarital relationships (IER). 208 passengers (121 men and 87 women) conveniently chosen from passengers awaiting in Tehran central depot filled Levels of Development in on-line Relationship Questionnaire, Online Sexual Intimacy Questionnaire, Marital Commitment Questionnaire, romantic relationship and sexual dissatisfaction subscales of Marital Satisfaction Inventory. Structural Equation Modeling was used to examine direct and indirect effects of factors via EQS-6. Results indicated that marital commitment had neither direct nor indirect effect on IER. The effect of marital commitment on romantic and sexual relationship and romantic and sexual relationship on IER were significant. It was concluded that relational factors play a more important role than social and religious factors in tendency toward internet infidelity. Limitations and suggestions for future research were also discussed.