2017/04/21 by M. Rosie Shrout, Daniel J. Weigel · 1 citation
Psychology · #Evolutionary Psychology and Human Behavior #Body Image and Dysmorphia Studies #Attachment and Relationship Dynamics #Psychology #Mental health #Partner effects #Blame #Attribution #Anxiety #Distress #Moderated mediation #Clinical psychology #Mediation #Social psychology #Psychiatry
paper · doi:10.1177/0265407517704091
openalex publication_date 2017/04/21 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/06/24
Guided by transactional stress theory, this research investigated the role of appraisals in noninvolved partners’ mental health and health-compromising behaviors after infidelity. Responses from 232 college students who were recently cheated on revealed that negative appraisals (partner blame, self-blame, and causal attribution) had indirect effects on health-compromising behaviors through mental health (depression, anxiety, and distress). Moderated mediation analyses revealed that gender altered the indirect effect of partner and self-blame on health-compromising behaviors through mental health. Men’s health-compromising behaviors did not differ based on their appraisals or mental health. However, women who reported negative appraisals and high levels of mental health consequences engaged in more health-compromising behaviors. These findings suggest that perceptions of a partner’s infidelity are important, and that those perceptions affect noninvolved partners’ mental health and physical health behaviors.