Factors affecting the tendency to marital infidelity: A grounded theory study

Marital infidelity is one of the most severe problems in families and investigating the reasons for the tendency to marital infidelity can have an effective role in reducing it.

This study was conducted based on the grounded theory (GT). To this end, two types of sampling techniques were used: The multistage random cluster sampling was employed to interview 28 teachers (male and female) and the purposeful sampling was used to interview 14 experts.

Based on the concepts and categories derived from the coding of the interviews, the five main individual, marital, family, spiritual, and social factors were found to be the underlying factors for the tendency to marital infidelity. Besides, 53 concepts and 14 subcategories were identified. Based on the selective coding, individual factors were identified as the central core of the study.

According to our findings, marital infidelity is an individual, marital, family, spiritual and social problem. Therefore, therapists are advised to consider personal, spiritual, and social causes in addition to examining family and marital factors in dealing with infidelity.