Secret romantic relationships: Consequences for personal and relational well-being

Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin

Volumn 35, Issue 11, 2009, Pages 1452-1466

  Lehmiller, Justin J ^a  

^a Department of Environmental and Radiological Health Sciences   (United States)

Author keywords

Cognitive interdependence; Commitment; Health symptoms; Romantic secrecy; Self esteem

Indexed keywords

ADOLESCENT; ADULT; ANXIETY DISORDER; ARTICLE; CONFIDENTIALITY; COURTSHIP; DEPRESSION; FEMALE; HUMAN; INDIVIDUALITY; LOVE; MALE; MIDDLE AGED; OBJECT RELATION; PERSONALITY TEST; PSYCHOLOGICAL ASPECT; SELF CONCEPT; SOCIAL BEHAVIOR; SOCIAL ENVIRONMENT; SOMATOFORM DISORDER;

ADOLESCENT; ADULT; ANXIETY DISORDERS; CONFIDENTIALITY; COURTSHIP; DEPRESSION; FEMALE; HUMANS; INDIVIDUALITY; LOVE; MALE; MIDDLE AGED; OBJECT ATTACHMENT; PERSONALITY INVENTORY; SELF CONCEPT; SOCIAL ENVIRONMENT; SOCIAL IDENTIFICATION; SOMATOFORM DISORDERS; YOUNG ADULT;

EID: 70350321973     PISSN: 01461672     EISSN: 15527433     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1177/0146167209342594     Document Type: Article

References (42)

1. Agnew, C.R., & Etcheverry, P.E. (2006). Cognitive interdependence: Considering self-in-relationship. In K. D. Vohs & E. J. Finkel (Eds.), Self and relationships: Connecting intrapersonal and interpersonal processes (pp. 274-293). New York: Guilford.
2. Agnew, C.R., Van Lange, P.A.M., Rusbult, C.E., & Langston, C.A. (1998). Cognitive interdependence: Commitment and the mental representation of close relationships. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 74, 939-954.
3. Akaike, H. (1987). Factor analysis and AIC. Psychometrika, 52, 317-332.
4. Anderson, J.C., & Gerbing, D.W. (1988). Structural equation modeling in practice: A review and recommended two-step approach. Psychological Bulletin, 103, 411-423.
5. Aron, A., Aron, E.N., & Smollan, D. (1992). Inclusion of Other in the Self Scale and the structure of interpersonal closeness. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 63, 596-612.
6. Aron, A., Norman, C.C., Aron, E.N., McKenna, C., & Heyman, R.E. (2000). Couples' shared participation in novel and arousing activities and experienced relationship quality. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 78, 273-284.
7. Arriaga, X.B., & Agnew, C.R. (2001). Being committed: Affective, cognitive, and conative components of relationship commitment. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 27, 1190-1203.
8. Baron, R.M., & Kenny, D.A. (1986). The moderator-mediator variable distinction in social psychological research: Conceptual, strategic, and statistical considerations. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 51, 1173-1182.
9. Baxter, L.A., & Widenmann, S. (1993). Revealing and not revealing the status of romantic relationships to social networks. Journal of Social and Personal Relationships, 10, 321-337.
10. Bentler, P.M., & Chou, C. (1987). Practical issues in structural modeling. Sociological Methods & Research, 16, 78-117.
11. Bryant, F.B., & Yarnold, P.R. (1995). Principal-components analysis and exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis. In L. G. Grimm & P. R. Yarnold (Eds.), Reading and understanding multivariate statistics (pp. 99-136). Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.
12. Clark, R., Anderson, N.B., Clark, V.R., & Williams, D.R. (1999). American Psychologist, 54, 805-816.
13. Cohen, S., & Herbert, T.B. (1996). Health psychology: Psychological factors and physical disease from the perspective of human psychoneuroimmunology. Annual Review of Psychology, 47, 113-142.
14. Derogatis, L.R., Lipman, R.S., Rickels, K., Uhlenhuth, E.H., & Covi, L. (1974). The Hopkins Symptom Checklist (HSCL): A self-report symptom inventory. Behavioral Science, 19, 1-15.
15. Drigotas, S.M., & Rusbult, C.E. (1992). Should I stay or should I go? A dependence model of breakups. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 62, 62-87.
16. Drigotas, S.M., Rusbult, C.E., & Verette, J. (1999). Level of commitment, mutuality of commitment, and couple well-being. Personal Relationships, 6, 389-409.
17. Finkenauer, C., & Rime, B. (1998). Keeping emotional memories secret: Health and subjective well-being when emotions are not shared. Journal of Health Psychology, 3, 47-58.
18. Foster, C.A., & Campbell, W.K. (2005). The adversity of secret relationships. Personal Relationships, 12, 125-143.
19. Gosling, S.D., Vazire, S., Srivastava, S., & John, O.P. (2004). Should we trust web-based studies? American Psychologist, 59, 93-104.
20. Hatcher, L. (1994). A step-by-step approach to using SAS for factor analysis and structural equation modeling. Cary, NC: SAS Institute.
21. Kelly, A.E. (2002). The psychology of secrets. New York: Kluwer Academic/Plenum.
22. Kiecolt-Glaser, J.K., & Newton, T.L. (2001). Marriage and health: His and hers. Psychological Bulletin, 127, 472-503.
23. Killian, K.D. (2002). Dominant and marginalized discourses in inter-racial couples' narratives: Implications for family therapists. Family Process, 41, 603-618.
24. Kneier, A.W., & Temoshok, L. (1984). Repressive coping reactions in patients with malignant melanoma as compared to cardiovascular disease patients. Journal of Psychosomatic Research, 28, 145-155.
25. Lane, J.D., & Wegner, D.M. (1994). Secret relationships: The back alley to love. In R. Erber & R. Gilmour (Eds.), Theoretical frameworks for personal relationships (pp. 67-85). Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
26. Larson, D.G., & Chastain, R.L. (1990). Self-concealment: Conceptualization, measurement, and health implications. Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology, 9, 439-455.
27. Lehmiller, J.J., & Agnew, C.R. (2006). Marginalized relationships: The impact of social disapproval on romantic relationship commitment. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 32, 40-51.
28. Lehmiller, J.J., & Agnew, C.R. (2007). Perceived marginalization and the prediction of romantic relationship stability. Journal of Marriage and Family, 69, 1036-1049.
29. Lehmiller, J.J., & Agnew, C.R. (2008). Commitment in age-gap heterosexual romantic relationships: A test of evolutionary and socio-cultural predictions. Psychology of Women Quarterly, 32, 74-82.
30. Loehlin, J.C. (1992). Latent variable models: An introduction to factor, path, and structural equations (2nd ed.). Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
31. Murray, S.L., Holmes, J.G., Griffin, D.W., Bellavia, G., & Rose, P. (2001). The mismeasure of love: How self-doubt contaminates relationship beliefs. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 27, 423-436.
32. Pennebaker, J.W., & Susman, J.R. (1988). Disclosure of traumas and psychosomatic processes. Social Science and Medicine, 26, 327-332.
33. Rosenberg, M. (1965). Society and the adolescent self-image. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
34. Rusbult, C.E., Martz, J.M., & Agnew, C.R. (1998). The Investment Model Scale: Measuring commitment level, satisfaction level, quality of alternatives, and investment size. Personal Relationships, 5, 357-391.
35. Smyth, J.M. (1998). Written emotional expression: Effect sizes, outcome types, and moderating variables. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 66, 174-184.
36. Tarlow, E.M., & Haaga, D.A.F. (1996). Negative self-concept: Specificity to depressive symptoms and relation to positive and negative affectivity. Journal of Research in Personality, 30, 120-127.
37. Trzesniewski, K.H., Donnellan, M.B., Moffitt, T.E., Robins, R.W., Poulton, R., & Caspi, A. (2006). Low self-esteem during adolescence predicts poor health, criminal behavior, and limited economic prospects during adulthood. Developmental Psychology, 42, 381-390.
38. Van Lange, P.A.M., Rusbult, C.E., Drigotas, S.M., Arriaga, X.B., Witcher, B.S., & Cox, C.L. (1997). Willingness to sacrifice in close relationships. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 72, 1373-1395.
39. Watson, D., Clark, L.A., & Tellegen, A. (1988). Development and validation of brief measures of positive and negative affect: The PANAS scales. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 54, 1063-1070.
40. Wegner, D.M. (1989). White bears and other unwanted thoughts. New York: Penguin.
41. Wegner, D.M., Lane, J.D., & Dimitri, S. (1994). The allure of secret relationships. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 66, 287-300.
42. Wegner, D.M., & Zanakos, S. (1994). Chronic thought suppression. Journal of Personality, 62, 615-640.