ABSTRACT
This study examined individuals who had an active agreement to be exclusive with their relationship partner but who also reported romantic or sexual attraction to someone outside of their relationship (a “crush”). We tracked participants over time, measuring attraction intensity and relationship quality, to help clarify when an extradyadic attraction might challenge the quality of the primary relationship in some way. Of 567 individuals (M age = 28.52; 55.4% women; 82.2% heterosexual) who reported an extradyadic attraction, 172 (30.3%) completed all assessments and maintained their primary relationship over a one-year period. We used HLM and cluster analysis to examine patterns of associations among these 172 participants and to capture typologies for extradyadic attraction. Overall, many harbor attraction to people outside of their relationship with no corresponding harms noted in that primary relationship, regardless of whether that attraction varied or was stable in its target. However, some had extradyadic attractions that were linked to decreases in primary relationship romantic and sexual satisfaction over time, especially among those whose relationship quality was lower at baseline. The findings have implications for researchers, counselors, and educators invested in supporting couples and for understanding relationship maintenance processes generally.