Abstract:

This study utilized a qualitative approach as a means of exploring wives' experiences of their husband's infidelity in the context of an internet affair. Although the number of individuals using the internet for business, finance, and in the formation or maintenance of personal relationships has increased dramatically over the last decade, the research on the impact that the internet has on offline personal relationships has been lacking. Internet infidelity can be comprised of both sexual and emotional components, but research suggests that internet infidelity contains significantly greater emotional involvement than traditional infidelity. This study focused exclusively on the emotional components of online affairs. Method. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with ten female participants who had experienced marital infidelity in the context of their husband's involvement in an internet based affair. The interviews were audio recorded, transcribed, and analyzed using the Constant Comparative Method (Maykut & Morehouse, 1994). Findings. Four categories containing a total of 6 major themes and 7 minor themes emerged regarding the experience of having a spouse participate in an internet affair. Internet infidelity appeared to be as of a significant relationship betrayal as traditional infidelity. The wives discussed how internet infidelity proved to have a significant impact on their lives, affecting them emotionally, interpersonally, and behaviorally. The wives discussed their perceptions of their husbands and marriages before, during, and after the discovery of their husband's internet affair. The wives reported feeling that emotional infidelity was more painful than sexual infidelity. The wives described how the internet affair affected their marriages in that the intimacy, communication and trust changed after the discovery of the affair. The wives stated that their self esteem was negatively impacted, and that they blamed themselves for their husband's affair. The wives also discussed the negative emotions they experienced after the discovery of the internet affair, and the coping strategies they employed to cope with the impact of the affair. A host of new factors exclusive to internet infidelity emerged. Lastly, the wives discussed the repair process involved in the healing of their marriages. Clinical implications as well as a proposed model of wives' experience of their husband's internet affair are discussed, as well as suggestions for future research.