Reasons for emotional infidelity and psychological repercussions associated with emotional infidelity (Descriptive and in-case study)

The current study aimed to reveal some of the factors contributing to emotional infidelity among a sample of wives consisting of (200) women, whose ages ranged from 25 to 50 years, and the years of marriage ranged from 3 to 27 years, and to investigate whether these factors differ according to the age, number of years of marriage, and the wife’s educational level. The researcher also conducted a case study on (5) married female volunteers who were involved in emotional infidelity to study the reasons that prompted them to do so and to study the psychological repercussions associated with this type of infidelity. The study found that there are many reasons for emotional infidelity from the wives’ point of view, and these reasons include factors related to the husband (perversions and secret relationships, the wife’s lack of sexual satisfaction from the husband, the husband watching pornographic films), factors related to the wife’s social environment (material needs, perfectionism, trying to waste time), factors related to the wife’s psychological needs (the wife’s attempt to imitate pornographic films she watches, the husband’s physiological sexual weakness, the wife’s need for affection), factors related to the wife’s family and social upbringing (attachment to the mother and her relationship with people other than her husband, loss of the sense of security, exposure to harassment at a young age by male relatives), and finally factors related to the wife’s weak religious conscience (the wife’s failure to bear the responsibility of marriage, lack of religious and moral awareness, lack of conscience). The study also found that the difference in age does not lead to a difference in the reasons for emotional infidelity by wives, and it was found that the opinions of the sample subjects differs when it comes justifications of the husbands and wives, and the psychological and social needs of men depending on the number of years of marriage. It was also found that there were no differences in the opinions of the research sample of married women about the causes of emotional infidelity based on the wife’s educational level. The results of the in-depth study of some cases supported what was stated in the results of applying the emotional infidelity scale regarding the group of factors, and they differed only in the order of those factors. As the study showed, the in-depth psychological repercussions associated with emotional infidelity include feelings of depression, anxiety, tendency toward aggression, feelings of frustration, low self-esteem, feelings of fear, conflict, and feelings of guilt, and family repercussions such as frequent disputes, family disintegration, lack of appreciation between spouses, doubt, marital dissatisfaction, loss of the sense of motherhood, confusion, and distress with children. The study ended with some recommendations, including attention to the upbringing of girls within their families, family and religious guidance for the husband and wife, focusing on educating the husband on taking care of his wife’s needs, taking children into consideration before engaging in behaviors that lead to emotional infidelity, as well as educating wives about the dangers of emotional infidelity on their families and psychological health.