Attachment insecurity and infidelity in marriage: do studies of dating relationships really inform us about marriage?

Both Hostile and Benevolent Sexism Predict Men's Infidelity

Infidelity has destructive effects on romantic relationships. Several idiographic characteristics or experiences in an intimate relationship have been linked to unfaithfulness. Yet, relatively little research has been paid to investigate how sexist beliefs might sabotage relationships by incurring infidelity. The present research examined the association between men's ambivalent sexism - hostile sexism and benevolent sexism - and men's infidelity as well as women's perception of the likelihood of men's infidelity. The results showed that men's hostile sexism and benevolent sexism predicted their increased infidelity (Studies 1 and 2). In addition, the indirect association between ambivalent sexism (both hostile sexism and benevolent sexism) and infidelity was through the importance placed on power in one's intimate relationship in general (Study 2). Importantly, women were unaware of benevolently sexist men's increased infidelity, such that women rated benevolently sexist men as having a lower likelihood of engaging in infidelity than hostilely sexist men and believed benevolently sexist men's infidelity level was similar to nonsexist men (Study 3). Therefore, these findings contribute to the psychology of infidelity by revealing that ambivalent sexism, both hostile sexism and benevolent sexism, are significant predictors. Implications of the findings are discussed.

No Remorse: Sexual Infidelity Is Not Clearly Linked with Relationship Satisfaction or Well-Being in Ashley Madison Users

Past research on extradyadic relationship experiences (including infidelity) often suffers from restricted sampling and retrospective accounts, which may have given researchers a distorted image of what it is like for people to have affairs. In this research, we shed light on the experiences people have during their affairs with a sample of registered users on Ashley Madison, a website geared toward facilitating infidelity. Our participants completed questionnaires about their primary (e.g., spousal) relationships, as well as personality traits, motivations to seek affairs, and outcomes. Findings from this study challenge widely held notions about infidelity experiences. Analyses revealed that participants were highly satisfied with their affairs and expressed little moral regret. A small subset of participants reported having consensually open relationships with their partners, who knew about their activity on Ashley Madison. In contrast to previous findings, we did not observe low relationship quality (i.e., satisfaction, love, commitment) to be a major driver of affairs and the affairs did not predict decreases in these relationship quality variables over time. That is, among a sample of individuals who proactively sought affairs, their affairs were not primarily motivated by poor dyadic/marital relationships, their affairs did not seem to have a strong negative impact on their relationships, and personal ethics did not play a strong role in people's feelings about their affairs.

Mental healthcare-seeking behavior of women in Bangladesh: content analysis of a social media platform

BACKGROUND

Mental health remains a highly stigmatized area of healthcare, and people often conceal their concerns rather than seek assistance or treatment. The Women Support Initiative Forum (WSIF) is a social media platform established in 2018 to provide expert and peer-led psychosocial support services to women of all ages in Bangladesh. The anonymous nature of the forum means that mental health concerns can be aired without fear of identification.

METHOD

A content analysis was conducted on the anonymous posts retrieved from the WSIF platform between 8^th March 2020 and 7^th July 2022. Around 1457 posts were initially selected for analysis which was reduced to 1006 after removing duplicates and non-relevant posts, such as queries about the addresses of the doctors and other non-mental health-related issues. A thematic analysis of the data was conducted using an inductive approach.

RESULT

The 1006 posts generated four themes and nine sub-themes. All the women mentioned mental health symptoms (n = 1006; 100%). Most also mentioned reasons for seeking mental healthcare (n = 818; 81.31%), healthcare-seeking behavior (n = 667; 66.30%), and barriers to seeking mental healthcare (n = 552; 54.87%). The majority of women described symptoms of stress, depression, and anxiety-like symptoms, which were aggregated under common mental health conditions. Mental health symptoms were ascribed to various external influences, including marital relationship, intrafamilial abuse, and insecurities related to the COVID-19 pandemic. A large proportion of posts were related to women seeking information about mental healthcare services and service providers (psychologists or psychiatrists). The analysis found that most women did not obtain mental healthcare services despite their externalized mental health symptoms. The posts identified clear barriers to women accessing mental health services, including low mental health literacy, the stigma associated with mental healthcare-seeking behavior, and the poor availability of mental health care services.

CONCLUSION

The study revealed that raising mass awareness and designing culturally acceptable evidence-based interventions with multisectoral collaborations are crucial to ensuring better mental healthcare coverage for women in Bangladesh.

An Empirical Investigation of the Roles of Biological, Relational, Cognitive, and Emotional Factors in Explaining Sex Differences in Dyadic Sexual Desire

One challenge many marital couples face is that they experience discrepant levels of sexual desire for one another. Such discrepancies are particularly likely to arise in mixed-sex relationships because, at least in long-term relationships, men tend to have higher levels of sexual desire for their partner than do women. But what underlies this sex difference? We used a dyadic study of 100 mixed-sex community-based newlywed spouses to investigate the role of biological, relational, cognitive, and emotional factors in explaining sex differences in dyadic sexual desire for a long-term partner. Consistent with predictions, wives on average reported lower daily sexual desire for their spouse than did husbands. Moreover, individual differences in men's and women's levels of circulating testosterone explained this sex difference whereas relational (marital satisfaction, commitment), cognitive (sex-role identification, stress, self-esteem), and emotional (mood, depressive symptoms) factors did not. These findings advance our knowledge of factors that influence dyadic sexual desire and may have practical implications for treating relationship distress in mixed-sex marriages.

Couple's Satisfaction among Lebanese adults: validation of the Toronto Alexithymia Scale and Couple Satisfaction Index-4 scales, association with attachment styles and mediating role of alexithymia

Background

Lebanon is passing through an economic crisis leading to a decreased monthly income within a couple and more couple’s dissatisfaction. Furthermore, many studies postulate that the different types of attachment styles affect the romantic relationship experienced between adults. The main objectives of our study were to (1) validate the Toronto Alexithymia Scale (TAS) and Couple Satisfaction Index-4 (CSI-4) scales, and (2) assess the association between attachment styles and couple satisfaction and evaluate the mediating role of alexithymia in these associations.

Methods

This cross-sectional study involved 445 Lebanese participants (April–May 2021). A confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was carried out using SPSS AMOS v.24 on the couple satisfaction index and Toronto alexithymia scales’ items. A linear regression was conducted, taking the couple satisfaction index as the dependent variable.

Results

The CFA results of the CSI-4 scale indicated an excellent fit (χ²/df = 3.845/2 = 1.92, TLI = 0.992, RMSEA = 0.046 [95% CI 0.001–0.115] (pclose = 0.436) and CFI = 0.998). The CFA of the TAS indicated a good/acceptable fit (χ²/df = 422.31/132 = 3.2, TLI = 0.89, RMSEA = 0.07 [95% CI 0.063–0.078] (pclose < 0.001) and CFI = 0.91) (items 4 and 8 were removed due to low factor loading (< 0.4)). Being married and higher secure attachment style were significantly associated with more couple satisfaction, whereas older age, higher household crowding index, more alexithymia and mode depression were significantly associated with less couple satisfaction. In addition, alexithymia mediated the association between secure attachment style and couple satisfaction, between preoccupied attachment style and couple satisfaction and between dismissing attachment style and couple satisfaction.

Conclusion

Couple’s satisfaction is positively associated with secure attachment style. In addition, alexithymia plays a mediating role between couple’s satisfaction and attachment styles. Upcoming studies should determine if other mental illnesses play a mediating role between attachment style and couple satisfaction.

Extradyadic Behaviors and Gender: How Do They Relate With Sexual Desire, Relationship Quality, and Attractiveness

Recent years have seen an increasing number of studies on relationship extradyadic behaviors (Pinto and Arantes, 2016; Pazhoohi et al., 2017; Silva et al., 2017; Fisher, 2018). However, much is still to learn about the impact of these extradyadic behaviors on subsequent relationships that an individual may have. Our main goal was to study the association between past extradyadic behaviors – inflicted and suffered – and current relationship quality, sexual desire and attractiveness. Specifically, we aimed to: (i) Understand if past extradyadic behaviors are related to current relationship quality, sexual desire, and self-perceived and partner’s attractiveness; (ii) Identify possible gender differences in these variables. For that, 364 participants (251 females and 113 males) were recruited through personal and institutional e-mails, online social networks (e.g., Facebook), and the website of the Evolutionary Psychology Group from the University of Minho. All participants completed a demographic and relationship questionnaire, followed by questions related to extradyadic behaviors and self-perceived attractiveness, the Perceived Relationship Quality Components (PRQC) Inventory, the Sex Drive Scale (SDQ), and the Importance of Partner’s Physical Attractiveness Scale (IPPAS). For those currently involved in a relationship, results suggested that extradyadic behaviors (both suffered or inflicted) are linked with current low relationship quality and high sexual desire in the present. In addition, individuals who perceived themselves as being more attractive tended to have a higher sexual desire and higher relationship quality. Overall, men reported higher levels of extradyadic behaviors and sexual desire, gave more importance to physical attractiveness, and perceived their current relationship as having less quality than women. These results add to the literature by focusing on different variables that play an important role in romantic relationships, and have important implications.

The Relationship Problem Solving (RePS) Model: How Partners Influence One Another to Resolve Relationship Problems

In this article, we synthesize existing literatures across numerous domains to introduce a novel model-the Relationship Problem Solving (RePS) model-for understanding the process through which romantic partners influence one another to resolve relationship problems. The first section briefly describes the key constructs and stages of the model. The second section details the interpersonal behaviors that influence various intrapersonal factors (e.g., affect, self-efficacy) that ultimately influence partners' motivation and ability to progress through the stages of the model. The third section uses the model to generate novel predictions that suggest that the effectiveness of these interpersonal behaviors often depends on contextual factors. Finally, the fourth section discusses the implications of this model for understanding relationship problem solving, highlights the need to consider the role of context in the problem-solving process, and offers numerous specific predictions to be addressed by future research.

The Implications of Sociosexuality for Marital Satisfaction and Dissolution

Most people will get married, and maintaining a quality marriage is critical to well-being. Nevertheless, many intimates experience declines in marital satisfaction, and a substantial proportion of marriages dissolve. Drawing from functional perspectives of human mating, we argue that one source of marital discord and dissolution is that people vary in their motivations to pursue uncommitted sex—that is, sociosexuality. We examined this possibility using data from two independent longitudinal studies of 204 newlywed couples and used actor–partner interdependence growth-curve modeling. Results demonstrated that relatively unrestricted (vs. restricted) sociosexuality was associated with an increased probability of relationship dissolution through declines in marital satisfaction over time. Additional exploratory analyses provided preliminary evidence suggesting that frequent sex, high sexual satisfaction, and low stress weaken this association. These primary findings suggest that strong motives to pursue uncommitted sex may interfere with marital success, and the latter findings suggest potential buffers for these negative outcomes.

Unforgiveness Motivations in Romantic Relationships Experiencing Infidelity: Negative Affect and Anxious Attachment to the Partner as Predictors

Infidelity is considered an unforgivable betrayal. However, not all behaviors considered unfaithful affect the person who suffers them in the same way. Therefore, to have a better understanding of unforgiveness according to different extradyadic behaviors, two studies were designed. Study 1 (N = 240) explored which extradyadic behaviors are considered as more indicative of infidelity. The results revealed that sexual behaviors were considered more unfaithful when compared with technological, emotional/affective, and solitary behaviors. Study 2 (N = 378) examined the influence of experienced extradyadic behaviors on unforgiveness, negative affect, and anxious attachment to the partner. The results showed that (a) sexual and technological behaviors were less frequently forgiven and promoted a more intense negative affect, (b) anxious attachment was predictive of unforgiveness for sexual and technological behaviors, and (c) negative affect mediated the relationship between anxious attachment and unforgiveness for sexual and technological behaviors. These findings and their possible implications for romantic relationships are discussed.

Motivations for Extradyadic Infidelity Revisited

Relationship infidelities are motivated by many distinct factors, with previous research indicating motivations of dissatisfaction, neglect, anger, and sexual desire (Barta & Kiene, 2005). We expand on this by demonstrating additional, empirically distinct motivations for infidelity. Using an Internet-based questionnaire, participants (N = 495), most of whom were young adults, self-reported their infidelities. In addition to evidence for previously studied motivations, our data demonstrate additional factors, including lack of love ("I had 'fallen out of love with' my primary partner"), low commitment ("I was not very committed to my primary partner"), esteem ("I wanted to enhance my popularity"), gaining sexual variety ("I wanted a greater variety of sexual partners"), and situational factors ("I was drunk and not thinking clearly"). Our results also show personality correlates with infidelity motivations. Consistent with predictions, attachment insecurity was associated with motivations of anger, lack of love, neglect, low commitment, and esteem, while unrestricted sociosexual orientation was associated with sexual variety. Implicit beliefs (e.g., growth, destiny, romanticism) were differentially associated with sexual desire, low commitment, lack of love, and neglect. These findings highlight multifaceted motivations underlying infidelity, moving beyond relationship deficit models of infidelity, with implications for research and psychotherapy involving people's romantic and sexual relationships.

Does support need to be seen? Daily invisible support promotes next day relationship well-being

Direct and overt visible support promotes recipients' relationship satisfaction but can also exacerbate negative mood. In contrast, subtle and indirect invisible support can bypass costs to mood, but it is unclear whether it undermines or boosts relationship satisfaction. Because invisible support is not perceived by recipients, its relational impact may be delayed across time. Thus, the current research used three dyadic daily diary studies (total N = 322 married couples) to explore, for the first time, both the immediate (same day) and lagged (next day) effects of visible and invisible support on recipients' mood and relationship satisfaction. Consistent with prior research, visible support was associated with recipients reporting greater relationship satisfaction and greater anxiety the same day. In contrast, but also consistent with prior research, invisible support had no significant same-day effects, and thus avoided mood costs. Nevertheless, invisible support was associated with recipients reporting greater relationship satisfaction the next day. Study 3 provided evidence that such effects emerged because invisible support was also associated with greater satisfaction with partners' helpful behaviors (e.g., household chores) and relationship interactions (e.g., time spent together) on the next day. These studies demonstrate the importance of assessing different temporal effects associated with support acts (which may otherwise go undetected) and provide the first evidence that invisible support enhances relationship satisfaction but does so across days. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2018 APA, all rights reserved).

Pathways to Infidelity: The Roles of Self-Serving Bias and Betrayal Trauma

This study employed a structural equation modeling (SEM) approach to examine the interrelationships between the self-serving bias and various known predictors of sexual infidelity. Specifically, we sought to generate a path model depicting how the following variables jointly predict sexual infidelity perpetration: (1) insecure attachment, (2) pathological narcissism, (3) sexual narcissism, (4) primary psychopathy, (5) self-serving attributions for retaliatory infidelity, and (6) sexual betrayal victimization. We developed a structural model describing various pathways to sexual infidelity perpetration based on these six variables. Three pathways to infidelity were discovered. In the first pathway, anxious and avoidant attachment predicted primary psychopathy, and self-justification for retaliatory infidelity mediated the relationship between primary psychopathy and infidelity perpetration. In the second pathway, anxious attachment predicted sexual narcissism, which predicted self-justification for retaliatory infidelity, which in turn predicted infidelity perpetration. In the third pathway, being a victim of sexual betrayal directly predicted sexual infidelity perpetration. In fact, suffering sexual betrayal was the best predictor of sexual infidelity perpetration. The clinical implications of these findings are discussed.

Expectations for future relationship satisfaction: Unique sources and critical implications for commitment

Contemporary perspectives on relationship commitment posit that intimates decide whether or not to maintain a relationship based on their commitment to that relationship, and that they base such commitment partially on their current satisfaction with that relationship. Nevertheless, given that ending a relationship requires knowing about both the current state of the relationship and the likely future state of the relationship, we propose that people base their commitment to a relationship more on their expected future satisfaction with the relationship than on their current satisfaction with that relationship. Six studies provided evidence for these ideas. Study 1 demonstrated that expected satisfaction is shaped by not only current satisfaction but also several unique indicators of the likelihood of future satisfaction, including anticipated life events, plans to improve the relationship, and individual differences. Then, using a combination of cross-sectional, experimental, and longitudinal methods, Studies 2 through 6 demonstrated that (a) expected satisfaction was a stronger predictor of relationship commitment, maintenance behaviors, and/or divorce than was current satisfaction and (b) expected satisfaction mediated the association between current satisfaction and these outcomes. These findings highlight not only the need to incorporate expected satisfaction into extent perspectives on commitment, but also the importance of expectations for decision-making processes more broadly. (PsycINFO Database Record

Extramarital Sex Among Vietnamese Married Men: Results of a Survey in Urban and Rural Areas of Northern and Southern Vietnam

Research on extramarital sex (EMS) is commonly conducted from a perspective that implicitly understands this behavior as a violation of the marital relationship. In contrast, Vietnamese cultural norms have, at some points in history, condoned if not outright encouraged EMS in the name of preserving family lineage. Yet little is known about the prevalence of EMS among contemporary Vietnamese men and its association with marriage quality. This is a notable gap, given the enormous sociocultural and ideological shifts the country has experienced over the past several decades. Drawing upon a sample of 126 married men (Mean age = 45.56; SD = 10.52) surveyed in urban (Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City) and rural areas (Ha Tay and Can Tho) in Vietnam, we examined the relationship between EMS and geographic region, demographic characteristics, sexual values, quality of marriage, and sexual satisfaction within marriage. Our results show that geographic location had a strong impact on EMS, while most marital relationship quality variables did not impact the odds of EMS for married men in Vietnam.

Do You Have Anything to Hide? Infidelity-Related Behaviors on Social Media Sites and Marital Satisfaction

Social media provides one route to behaviors that may be potentially harmful to romantic relationships, such as communicating with alternative partners, which can sometimes create relationship conflict, breakups, or divorce. Limited empirical evidence exists concerning social media infidelity-related behaviors and marital relationships. This study examined whether married/cohabiting individuals are using social media sites to engage in online infidelity-related behaviors and to what extent this related to relationship satisfaction, ambivalence, and relational attachment characteristics as reported by 338 married/cohabiting individuals from 176 families. Only a small percentage of married/cohabiting couples reported engaging in social media infidelity-related behaviors; however, more engagement in infidelity-related behaviors on social media was significantly related to lower relationship satisfaction, higher relationship ambivalence, and greater attachment avoidance and anxiety in both women and men. Additionally, attachment anxiety and gender interacted with relationship satisfaction in predicting online infidelity-related behaviors when controlling for other variables. Implications are discussed.

Forgive and Forget, or Forgive and Regret? Whether Forgiveness Leads to Less or More Offending Depends on Offender Agreeableness

How does forgiveness predict the likelihood of reoffending? One survey study, one experiment, one 4-year longitudinal study, and one 2-week diary study examined the implications of forgiveness for reoffending in relationships. In all four studies, agreeableness interacted with partner forgiveness to predict subsequent offending; partner forgiveness was negatively associated with subsequent offending among more agreeable people but positively associated with subsequent offending among less agreeable people. Furthermore, Study 4 demonstrated a unique mechanism of each simple effect; relatively agreeable people engaged in fewer transgressions against more forgiving partners because they felt obligated to refrain from transgressing against such partners whereas relatively disagreeable people engaged in more transgressions against more forgiving partners because they perceived those partners were less easily angered. These studies indicate that completely understanding the intrapersonal and interpersonal consequences of forgiveness requires recognizing the dyadic nature of forgiveness and attending to qualities of the offender.

The Relationship Between Attachment Styles and Lifestyle With Marital Satisfaction

Background

Marital satisfaction is one of the deepest and the most basic human pleasures and should be established within the family environment; if not, couples might suffer emotionally. Several factors are involved, including attachment and lifestyle.

Objectives

The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between styles of attachment and lifestyle with marital satisfaction.

Materials and Methods

The population in this study included all of the Bandar Abbas oil refining (BAOR) company employees, for a total of 292 people (146 couples). They were selected by multistage random sampling. The enrich marital satisfaction scale was used to measure marital satisfaction, the Collins and read’s revised adult attachment scale (RAAS) for adult attachment to determine attachment style, and the life style questionnaire (LSQ) for lifestyle. This research was a descriptive-correlative one, and for the data analysis, we used Pearson’s correlation factor and multivariable regression.

Results

The results indicate that attachment style and lifestyle factors can predict marital satisfaction. There was also a meaningful negative relationship between insecure attachment avoidant and insecure attachment anxious-ambivalent styles and marital satisfaction. However, there was no meaningful relationship between secure attachment style and marital satisfaction.

Conclusions

The results showed that the early relationship within the family environment supports a certain attachment style and the effects of the avoidant insecure and ambivalent insecure styles affect the interpersonal relations of the couples in adulthood. The effect of attachment styles on interpersonal relations is far greater than that of lifestyle.

Adding insult to injury: partner depression moderates the association between partner-regulation attempts and partners' motivation to resolve interpersonal problems

Intimates regularly confront their partners to motivate them to change undesirable behaviors. Nevertheless, contextual perspectives suggest that qualities of the partner may determine the implications of such attempts. Consistent with these ideas, a pilot study of romantic relationships, an observational study of newlyweds, and a diary study of married couples demonstrated that partner depression moderates the association between confrontational partner-regulation behaviors and partners' motivation, such that confrontational behaviors were associated with marginally greater motivation to resolve problems among partners who were experiencing relatively few depressive symptoms, but significantly less motivation among partners who were experiencing relatively more depressive symptoms. Furthermore, Study 2 provided evidence for the mechanism of these effects--relationship self-efficacy. Finally, these studies also demonstrated that benevolent behaviors were particularly motivating for partners who were experiencing more depressive symptoms. These findings highlight the important roles played by depression, relationship self-efficacy, and context in interpersonal communication.

Risky sexual behaviours: The role of substance use, psychopathic traits, and attachment insecurity among adolescents and young adults in Quebec

The purpose of this study was to examine how substance use, psychopathic traits, and attachment representations explain sexual risk-taking in adolescence. Variables used to define risky sexual behaviours were age at first sexual intercourse and number of lifetime sexual partners. A sample of 1,553 adolescents and young adults completed a battery of questionnaires including measures of substance use, psychopathic traits, attachment representations, and sexual behaviours. Structural equation modelling demonstrated that, in the present sample, risky sexual behaviours were best modelled through both direct effects of avoidant attachment representations and indirect effects of psychopathic traits and abandonment anxiety through increases in substance use. This model was gender-invariant and may represent a contemporary trend toward homogenization of sexual practices among young people in Quebec.

Sexual narcissism and infidelity in early marriage

There is theoretical reason to believe that narcissism is associated with infidelity. Yet, studies that have examined this association have yielded inconsistent results. Given that these inconsistencies may have emerged because prior studies used global assessments of narcissism that do not capture the extent to which the components of narcissism are activated in the sexual domain, the current research drew from two longitudinal studies of 123 married couples to examine the extent to which sexual narcissism predicted marital infidelity. Consistent with the idea that narcissism predicts sexual behavior when activated in the sexual domain, own sexual narcissism was positively associated with infidelity, controlling for own marital and sexual satisfaction, own globally-assessed narcissism, partner globally-assessed narcissism, and partner sexual narcissism. Helping to explain why this association emerged, further analyses demonstrated that it was driven by all four facets of sexual narcissism-sexual exploitation, grandiose sense of sexual skill, sexual entitlement (Study 1 only), and lack of sexual empathy (husbands only). Additionally, although partner sexual narcissism was unrelated to infidelity on average, partners' grandiose sense of sexual skill and partners' sexual entitlement (Study 2 only) were positively associated with infidelity, and partners' lack of sexual empathy was negatively associated with infidelity (Study 2 only). These findings highlight the benefits of using domain-specific measures of sexual narcissism in research on sexual behavior and the benefits of using domain-specific measures of personality more generally.

Childhood sexual abuse and attachment insecurities as predictors of women's own and perceived-partner extradyadic involvement

We examined the association between self-reported childhood sexual abuse and a woman's own and perceived-partner extradyadic involvement (EDI). The association was examined both directly and as potentially mediated by attachment-related anxiety and avoidance in a sample of 807 French Canadian women. In line with our hypotheses, we found that a personal history of CSA is associated with a woman's own and perceived-partner EDI and with the woman's levels of attachment anxiety and avoidance. The association between CSA and own EDI was partially mediated by attachment-related avoidance. The results suggest that a sense of betrayal stemming from CSA predisposes a woman to avoidance, which in turn predisposes her to EDI. The association between CSA and perceived-partner EDI was partially mediated by both attachment anxiety and avoidance. These results suggest that victims of CSA become suspicious of others' relational behavior and intentions, which contribute to attachment-related anxiety and avoidance and both own and perceived-partner EDI.

When low self-esteem encourages behaviors that risk rejection to increase interdependence: the role of relational self-construal [corrected]

[Correction Notice: An Erratum for this article was reported in Vol 104(6) of Journal of Personality and Social Psychology (see record 2013-18890-002). The title of the article is incorrect.] Increasing interdependence in an intimate relationship requires engaging in behaviors that risk rejection, such as expressing affection and asking for support. Who takes such risks and who avoids them? Although several theoretical perspectives suggest that self-esteem plays a crucial role in shaping such behaviors, they can be used to make competing predictions regarding the direction of this effect. Six studies reconcile these contrasting predictions by demonstrating that the effects of self-esteem on behaviors that risk rejection to increase interdependence depend on relational self-construal-that is, the extent to which people define themselves by their close relationships. In Studies 1 and 2, participants were given the opportunity to disclose negative personal information (Study 1) and feelings of intimacy (Study 2) to their dating partners. In Study 3, married couples reported the extent to which they confided in one another. In Study 4, we manipulated self-esteem and relational self-construal, and participants reported their willingness to engage in behaviors that increase interdependence. In Studies 5 and 6, we manipulated the salience of interpersonal risk, and participants reported their willingness to engage in behaviors that risk rejection to increase interdependence. In all 6 studies, self-esteem was positively associated with behaviors that can increase interdependence among people low in relational self-construal but negatively associated with those behaviors among people high in relational self-construal. Accordingly, theoretical descriptions of the role of self-esteem in relationships will be most complete to the extent that they consider the degree to which people define themselves by their close relationships.