Authors: Hadley Avila, Chelom Leavitt
Mentors: Chelom Leavitt
Insitution: Brigham Young University
The association between media consumption and relationship satisfaction has been a growing area of interest within the past several years; however, little research has looked into how different areas of media entertainment might affect specific factors that contribute to relationship satisfaction: relationship flourishing and sexual harmony. We analyzed the association between individual partners media consumption through television viewing, video game playing, and social media, to their level of relationship flourishing and sexual harmony. Additionally, past research has yet to explore possible solutions to the potential negative associations between media and romantic relationships. We analyzed individual partner mindfulness to see if it acted as a moderator against declines in relationship flourishing and sexual growth due to media distractions. We found that while women’s video game use and social media use were both negatively associated with sexual harmony and relationship flourishing, mindfulness only acted as a moderator against the relationship between social media use and relationship flourishing. For men, television viewing and social media use were negatively associated with relationship flourishing and sexual harmony, however, mindfulness did not act as a moderator.