Evaluating the use of social media in escalating conflicts in romantic relationships

• Published date: 01 February 2022
• Author: Abdulgaffar Olawale Arikewuyo,Taiwo Temitope Lasisi,Saudat Salah Abdulbaqi,Aisha Imam Omoloso,Halima Oluwaseyi Arikewuyo
• Date: 01 February 2022
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1002/pa.2331

ACADEMIC PAPER

Evaluating the use of social media in escalating conflicts

in romantic relationships

Abdulgaffar Olawale Arikewuyo Ph.D.

1

| Taiwo Temitope Lasisi Ph.D.

2,3

|

Saudat Salah Abdulbaqi Ph.D.

1

| Aisha Imam Omoloso Ph.D.

1

|

Halima Oluwaseyi Arikewuyo MD.

4

1

Department of Mass Communication, Faculty

of Communication and Information Sciences,

University of Ilorin, Ilorin, Nigeria

2

South Ural State University (National

Research University), Management, Prospekt

Lenina, Russia

3

Eastern Mediterranean University, Tourism

Famagusta, Famagusta, Turkey

4

Department of Epidemiology and Community

Medicine, University of Ilorin, Ilorin, Nigeria

Correspondence

Abdulgaffar Olawale Arikewuyo, Department

of Mass Communication, Faculty of

Communication and Information Sciences,

University of Ilorin, Ilorin, Nigeria.

Email: arikewuyo.oa@unilorin.edu.ng

Conflict in romantic relationships is a natural phenomenon. However, the use of

social media by romantic partners has been described as a means of escalating con-

flicts in romantic relationships. This study sought to find out the effects of social

media use on conflict in romantic relationships through the mediating variables of

jealousy, infidelity, and monitoring The study recruited 373 individuals who are in

romantic relationships. The findings of this study revealed a significant relationship

between social media use and conflict in romantic relationships. This study also affi-

rmed that jealousy, infidelity, and monitoring romantic partners are significant media-

tors between social media use and conflict in romantic relationships. Importantly, the

study revealed that social media use is not a predictor of infidelity in romantic

relationships.

Conflict may be classified as a form of disagreement or contradiction

that exists due to difference in goals, aspirations, values, and everyday

life issues (Azim, 2017). Conflict may arise due to many natural and

artificial reasons (Humphreys, 2005). For instance, natural resources

like oil may infuse conflict among the people of a community while

inappropriate or ineffective communication may spring up a conflict

between two people. Nonetheless, conflict has been ascribed to influ-

ence people's attitude, lifestyle, comportment, and societal associa-

tions/interactions (Desender, Opstal, & Bussche, 2014). The degree,

approach, and skills in handling conflict, however, vary from person to

person (Greer, Jehn, & Mannix, 2008). Furthermore, when two people

experience a form of disagreement, or variance in opinion andnone of

the individuals involved is ready to give in, interpersonal conflict may

occur (Huang, 2010).

Interpersonal conflict may occur between colleagues at work, within a

family, community, or romantic partners. Meanwhile, the conflict that

occurs among partners in romantic relationships is one of the most com-

mon types of interpersonal conflict. When individuals in a relationship

become unduly suspicious, jealous, or sensitive to their romantic partner or

close ally's activities, conflict may arise. However, romantic relationships

may thrive when individuals involved are able to manage the disagree-

ments and contradictions therein (Yarnell & Neff, 2013).

Therefore, conflict in romantic relationships may be classified as

the existence of dialectic opinion, views, belief, and ideology, which

may generate disagreement between the romantic partners. However,

suspicion and doubt in romantic relationships may also be increased

through the partner's use of social media. As such, the ultimate aim of

this study is to investigate how social media use may exacerbate con-

flict in romantic relationships.

1|LITERATURE REVIEW

1.1 |Social media use and conflict in romantic

relationships

Over the years, romantic relationships have been conceptually

defined in many different ways (Arikewuyo, Bahire, & Lasisi, 2019;

Arikewuyo, Efe-Özad, & Owolabi, 2020; Arikewuyo, Eluwole, &

Ozad, 2020). However, a romantic relationship may be classified as

the sexual, emotional, physical, and psychological attraction between

two people with mutual consent (Len-Ríos et al., 2016; (Arikewuyo,

Efe-Özad, Dambo, Abdulbaqi, & Arikewuyo, 2020; Arikewuyo, Ozad, &

Saidu, 2018). Individuals may develop from mere friendship, grow to

Received: 10 June 2020 Revised: 14 July 2020 Accepted: 25 July 2020

DOI: 10.1002/pa.2331

J Public Affairs. 2022;22:e2331. wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/pa © 2020 John Wiley & Sons Ltd 1of10

https://doi.org/10.1002/pa.2331