Article

The Family Journal: Counseling and

Therapy for Couples and Families
I Don’t Care Much as Long as I Am Also 2016, Vol. 24(4) 351-358
ª The Author(s) 2016
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DOI: 10.1177/1066480716663199
Use of Both Partners on Romantic tfj.sagepub.com

Relationship Problems

Santika Nongpong1 and Peerayuth Charoensukmongkol1

Abstract
This research investigated the impacts of social media use while being with a partner on the perception of relationship problems
experienced by the other partner. The results from the partial least squares regression indicated that individuals who perceived
that their partners used social media excessively tended to report a higher perception of lack of caring, loneliness, and jealousy.
However, only lack of caring was found to be the key reason that significantly explained the intention to break up. In addition, the
analysis of the moderating effect revealed interesting evidence showing that the perception of relationship problems associated
with social media use of own partners appeared to be more severe for the respondents who reported that they used social media
less intensively than their partners. Conversely, for the respondents who reported that they used social media to a greater degree
than their partners, the impacts on the perceived relationship problems were significantly lessened.

Keywords
social media, couple, relationship problems

At the present time, physical distance does not seem to be a
major obstacle for couples who want to maintain their romantic
relationships because advances in social media technology
allow people to stay connected with their loved ones no matter
where they are located (Saslow, Muise, Impett, & Dubin, 2012;
Utz & Beukeboom, 2011). Despite this benefit that social
media provides, a growing body of research has shown that
social media can cause problems that make romantic relation-
ships unhealthy (Clayton, Nagurney, & Smith, 2013; Marshall,
Bejanyan, Di Castro, & Lee, 2013; Utz & Beukeboom, 2011).
In particular, relationship problems inevitably arise when indi-
viduals spend an excessive amount of time on social media
rather than paying attention to or spending quality time with
their partners when they are together. The perception of being
ignored due to this behavior of the loved one not only brings
about negative feelings toward a partner but can also trigger
conflicts that damage love relationships eventually.
Given the potential that an excessive use of social media
while being with a partner might impair relationship quality,
the objective of this research is to investigate the consequence
of such behavior on three aspects of relationship problems
including (1) loneliness, (2) lack of caring, and (3) jealousy.
The study will also explore whether these three relationship
problems consequently associate with the intention to break
up. Although the impacts of social media use on these three
problems were previously found in the literature (Hand, Tho-
mas, Buboltz, Deemer, & Buyanjargal, 2013; Marshall et al.,
2013; Muise, Christofides, & Desmarais, 2009), results
obtained from existing research were largely based on the
assessment of the social media use of only one partner: either
an individual’s own use or a partner’s use. However, assessing
social media use from only one side might provide an incom-
plete view of this phenomenon. Some questions could be
raised, for example, if both partners used social media inten-
sively while being together, could it be possible that each of
them would not care much about the social media behavior of
the other partner, thereby making these relationship problems
less severe than when social media was used intensively by
only one partner? Although the study by Hand, Thomas,
Buboltz, Deemer, and Buyanjargal (2013) is one exception that
assessed social media use of both partners, the authors failed to
explore the interaction between an individual’s own social
media use and a partner’s social media use that might influence
the relationship outcomes. This issue, therefore, is the prime
research question that the present study aims to address.
1
National Institute of Development Administration, International College,
Bangkok, Thailand
Corresponding Author:
Peerayuth Charoensukmongkol, National Institute of Development Adminis-
tration, International College, 118 Moo 3, Serithai Road Klong-Chan, Bangkapi,
Bangkok 10240, Thailand.
Email: peerayuth.c@nida.ac.th

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352
Research Background and Hypotheses
Although previous research normally employs the amount of
time spent on social media as the indicator that causes relation-
ship problems, the present study focuses on the issue when
individuals perceive that their partners excessively use social
media to interact with other people during the time when they
are together. The conceptualization of social media use in this
sense also involves the tendency of individuals to pay more
attention to activities in social media than paying attention to
their partners during the activities they normally do together.
Because interpersonal interaction and caring are among the
critical ingredients for love couples to maintain healthy rela-
tionships (Ahmetoglu, Swami, & Chamorro-Premuzic, 2010),
excessive use of social media while individuals are with their
partners could be considered an inappropriate behavior that
causes serious relationship problems. In fact, research has
shown that too much social media use can damage the quality
of interpersonal interactions that individuals develop with other
people in real life (Charoensukmongkol, 2015). In love rela-
tionships, being overwhelmed by social media use may cause
individuals to care less about their partners while being
together. Use of social media in this sense also lowers the
amount of quality time that individuals spend with their part-
ners, thereby causing relationship intimacy to be impaired
(Hand et al., 2013). The feeling of being ignored by a loved
one who is obsessed with social media can cause a partner to
feel lonely, even when the couple is physically together. More-
over, witnessing that a loved one uses social media to interact
with other people too much can engender distrust and jealousy,
thereby triggering a partner to engage in unhealthy behaviors,
such as spying or monitoring social media activities of the
loved one (Muise et al., 2009; Muise, Christofides, & Desmar-
ais, 2014). On the whole, these relationship problems that a
partner experiences can eventually result in a higher tendency
to break up and divorce (Clayton et al., 2013).
Given that previous research has shown that there are neg-
ative consequences of social media use, this study proposed
that individuals who perceive that their partners use social
media excessively while with them are more likely to experi-
ence three relationship problems: (1) loneliness, (2) lack of
caring, and (3) jealousy. According to previous literature, these
three issues are among the major reasons that trigger the inten-
tion to break up and divorce (Baxter, 1986; Gigy & Kelly,
1993; Guerrero & Andersen, 1995; Sprecher, 1994). However,
the authors further argue the proposal that the social media use
of a partner will make individuals experience these relationship
problems could be more obvious when the person who evalu-
ates the relationship problems tends to use social media to a
lesser degree than his or her partner. For example, when the
individual does not or rarely uses social media while being with
the partner, he or she tends to be more sensitive when perceiv-
ing that the partner spends an excessive time on social media
rather than paying attention to him or her. On a contrary, the
negative impacts of social media use of a partner on perceived
relationship problems can be lessened when the person who
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The Family Journal: Counseling and Therapy for Couples and Families 24(4)
evaluates the relationship problems tends to use social media
to a degree that is more excessive than his or her partner uses
when they are together. In this scenario, the individual may not
pay much attention to or may not care much about the social
media behavior of the partner because he or she also enjoys
social media use. Thus, the authors predict that the perceived
relationship problems caused by excessive social media use of
a partner will be lower in this case. Given this possibility, the
following hypotheses are proposed:
Hypothesis 1: A partner’s use of social media positively
associates with the perception of (a) loneliness, (b) lack of
caring, and (c) jealousy that the respondent experiences.
Hypothesis 2: (a) Loneliness, (b) lack of caring, and (c)
jealousy that the respondent experiences will positively
associate with the intention to break up.
Hypothesis 3: The association between a partner’s use of
social media and the perception of (a) loneliness, (b) lack of
caring, and (c) jealousy that the respondent experiences will
be lower in the respondent who uses social media more
intensively than his or her partner.
Method
Sample and Data Collection Procedure
The sample for this research included both married individuals
and single individuals who were in current love relationships.
The sample was obtained using the snowball sampling tech-
nique. Graduate students at the public university in Thailand
were asked to distribute the survey to their friends, colleagues,
or relatives who were already married or in love relationships.
The authors obtained a total of 256 completed surveys for
analysis. Descriptive characteristics of the sample are reported
in Table 1.
With respect to the characteristics of the relationships in the
sample, the majority (70%) of the respondents were married.
Among all married respondents, the majority reported that they
had been in their relationships for more than 10 years, lived
with their partners, and had children. Among single respon-
dents (30%), the majority reported that they had been in a
relationship for 3–4 years, did not live with their partners, and
did not have children. Information regarding the relationship
characteristics of the respondents classified by marital status is
reported in Table 2.
Measures
The measures of all constructs used in this research were devel-
oped by the authors. The question items are shown in Appendix
1. To ensure the clarity of the questions, they were pilot tested
with the graduate students prior to actual data collection. Part-
ners’ social media use was measured using seven questions that
asked the respondents to assess the degree to which they felt
that their partners used social media excessively with other
Nongpong and Charoensukmongkol 353

Table 1. Descriptive Characteristics of the Sample. extent they felt that their love relationships with current part-
ners were difficult to continue. It was measured using three
Age (years) Mean: 36
SD: 6.886
questions that were rated on a 5-point Likert-type scale (1: very
Gender Male: 72 (28%) unlikely, 5: very likely).
Female: 184 (72%) In addition to the main predictors, several control variables
Marital status Single: 78 (30%) that might affect all dependent variables were incorporated into
Married: 178 (70%) the analysis. Control variables that were demographic charac-
Length of relationship Less than 1 year: 14 (6%) teristics included age and gender of the respondents. Age was
1–2 Years: 26 (10%) measured in years. Gender was measured as a dummy variable,
3–4 Years: 35 (14%)
5–6 Years: 38 (15%)
whereby male was coded as 1 and female was coded as 0.
7–8 Years: 21 (8%) Control variables that were relationship characteristics
8–9 Years: 8 (3%) included length of relationship, marital status, whether a
10 Years or more: 114 (44%) respondent lived with a partner, and whether a respondent had
Live with a partner Yes: 69 (27%) children with a partner. Length of relationship was measured
No: 187 (73%) on the ordinal scale. Marital status, whether a respondent lived
Have children with a partner Yes: 117 (46%) with a partner, and whether a respondent had children with a
No: 139 (54%)
partner were measured as dummy variables whereby ‘‘yes’’
was coded as 1 and ‘‘no’’ was coded as 0.

Table 2. Relationship Characteristics Classified by Marital Status.

Statistical Analysis
Marital Status
The study used partial least squares (PLS) regression to analyze
Characteristics Single Married the data (Chin & Newsted, 1999). PLS provided greater flex-
ibility than other structural equation modeling techniques
Length of relationship
because it did not require data to be normally distributed
Less than 1 year 11 3
1–2 years 17 9 (Kline, 2005). It was suitable for this study because the results
3–4 years 19 16 from the Jarque–Bera test of normality indicated that all main
5–6 years 16 22 constructs in the hypotheses were not normally distributed.
7–8 years 7 14 PLS estimation was performed using WarpPLS, Version 5.0.
9–10 years 2 6
10 years or more 6 108
Live with a partner
Yes 19 168 Results
No 59 10
Have children with a partner Reliability and validity tests for all latent variables were con-
Yes 0 117 ducted before estimating the PLS model. First, construct relia-
No 78 61 bility was determined from Cronbach’s a and composite
reliability coefficients. As show in Table 3, all coefficients met
the minimum requirement of .7 (Nunnally, 1978). Second, con-
vergent validity was determined using factor loading. As
people while they were together. The questions were rated on a shown in Appendix 1, every construct had a factor loading
5-point Likert-type scale (1: never, 5: always). The respon- above .5, which was satisfactory according to Hair, Black,
dents’ own social media use intensity was measured using Babin, and Anderson (2009). Third, a discriminant validity test
seven questions similar to the questions that measured their was assessed by comparing whether the square root of the
partners’ social media use. The respondents were asked to average variance extracted of each construct was greater than
self-evaluate to what extent they used social media more or other correlations involving that construct (Fornell & Larcker,
less intensively than their partners. The questions were rated 1981). The results, as shown in Table 3, satisfy this require-
on a 5-point Likert-type scale (1: a lot less, 5: a lot more). ment. Table 3 also reports correlations among all of the vari-
Lack of caring, loneliness, and jealousy were measured by ables in the analysis.
asking the respondents to evaluate the extent to which they felt Finally, multicollinearity was evaluated using the full colli-
that the degree of their partners’ social media use that they nearity variance inflation factor (VIF). The full collinearity
assessed earlier made them experience each of these relation- VIF test was more robust than the traditional VIF test because
ship problems. Lack of caring was measured using 6 questions, it assessed vertical and lateral collinearity simultaneously.
loneliness was measured using 6 questions, and jealousy was According to Kock and Lynn (2012), the full collinearity VIF
measured using 12 questions. All questions were rated on a test can be used to capture the possibility of common method
5-point Likert-type scale (1: never, 5: a lot). Intention to break bias in the PLS model. The analysis showed that the full col-
up was measured by asking the respondents to evaluate to what linearity VIF of all variables ranged from 1.095 to 2.949, which

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354 The Family Journal: Counseling and Therapy for Couples and Families 24(4)

Table 3. Correlation Between Variables and Square Root of Average Variance Extracted.

Composite Cronbach’s
Reliability a
Variable Coefficients Coefficients PSMU LC JLS LONE IBU OSMU LR MAR CHD LT MALE AGE

PSMU .952 .941 (.86) .448** .183** .442** .155* .286** .045 .073 .052 .1 .134 .027
LC .965 .946 (.95) .337** .637** .448** .078 .031 .05 .077 .094 .005 .04
JLS .969 .964 (.849) .539** .266** .009 .215** .208** .206** .18** .164** .216**
LONE .975 .969 (.932) .313** .095 .117 .039 .095 .03 .055 .11
IBU .893 .821 (.858) .045 .165** .175** .033 .125* .103 .026
OSMU .975 .97 (.92) .029 .119 .076 .062 .28** .124*
LR — — (1) .549** .37** .419** .002 .445**
MAR — — (1) .53** .726** .058 .436**
CHD — — (1) .375** .06 .522**
LT — — (1) .051 .347
MALE — — (1) .073**
AGE — — (1)
Note. Square roots of average variance extracted from latent variables are shown in parentheses. PSMU ¼ partner’s social media use; LC ¼ lack of caring; JLS ¼
jealousy; LONE ¼ loneliness; IBU ¼ intention to break up; OSMU ¼ own social media use; LR ¼ length of relationship; MAR ¼ married; CHD ¼ respondent has
kid with a partner; LT ¼ respondent live with a partner; MALE ¼ male dummy variable; AGE ¼ age.
*p < .05. **p < .01.

R2 = .166

Jealousy
-.103*
Own social
media use
.128*
-.126* .222***
R2 = .225 R2 = .282

Partner’s social Lack of Intention to

media use .436*** caring .378*** breakup

.453***
R2 = .254
-.131** -.001

Loneliness
Notes: * p < .1; ** p < .05; *** p < .01;
Significant paths are shown in solid lines;
Standardized coefficients are reported.

Figure 1. Partial least squares results.

was below the minimum requirement of 3.3 as suggested by
Petter, Straub, and Rai (2007).
Results from the PLS analysis are reported in Figure 1.
Hypotheses 1a–1c predicted that partners’ social media use
would positively associate with the loneliness, lack of caring,
and jealousy, respectively, that the respondents experience.
The results statistically confirm its positive association with
loneliness (b ¼ .453; p  .001), lack of caring (b ¼ .436;
p  .001), and jealousy (b ¼ .222; p  .001). Thus, Hypotheses
1a–1c are supported.
Hypotheses 2a–2c predicted that loneliness, lack of caring,
and jealousy, respectively, would positively relate to the inten-
tion to break up. The results indicate that the intention to break
up positively and significantly associated with lack of caring (b
¼ .428; p  .001) and jealousy (b ¼ .122; p ¼ .055). Contrary
to the hypothesis, the intention to break up was found to

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Nongpong and Charoensukmongkol
associate negatively with loneliness (b ¼ .024; p ¼ .41).
However, only the association with lack of caring was statisti-
cally significant. Therefore, only Hypothesis 2b is supported,
while Hypotheses 2a and 2b are not supported.
Finally, Hypotheses 3a–3c predicted that the positive effect
of partners’ social media use on the loneliness, lack of caring,
and jealousy, respectively, that the respondents perceive would
be less positive if the respondents used social media to a degree
that was greater than their partners. The results showed that the
interaction terms between partners’ social media use and indi-
viduals’ own social media use negatively and significantly
affected loneliness (b ¼ .131; p  .01), lack of caring (b ¼
.126; p  .05), and jealousy (b ¼ .103; p  .05). Thus,
Hypotheses 3a–3c are all supported.
Figure 2 presents the nature of the moderating effects. The
illustrations were generated using WarpPLS software. All
illustrations show that the trend lines between partners’ social
media use and three outcome variables are steeper in the
group of respondents who reported that they used social
media to a lesser degree than their partners. For those who
reported that they used social media to a greater degree than
their partners, the trend lines appear to be less positive. Over-
all, these illustrations are consistent with the statistical find-
ings reported earlier.
Finally, the effect of statistically significant control vari-
ables was found as follows. Loneliness negatively associated
with the length of relationship (b ¼ .123; p  .05) and the
male dummy variable (b ¼ .111; p  .05). Jealousy nega-
tively associated with the male dummy variable (b ¼ .198;
p  .001). Intention to break up negatively associated with
length of relationship (b ¼ .141; p  .05), but positively
associated with the male dummy variable (b ¼ .115; p  .05)
and age (b ¼ .146; p  .05).
Discussion
The present research investigated the impacts of social media
use while being with a partner on the perception of relationship
problems experienced by the other partner. The results from the
PLS analysis supported the proposal that individuals who per-
ceived that their partners used social media excessively tended
to report a higher perception of lack of caring, loneliness, and
jealousy. However, only lack of caring was found to be the key
reason that significantly explained the intention to break up.
Generally, the results that supported the negative impacts of
social media use of a partner were consistent with the findings
in previous studies (Clayton et al., 2013; Marshall et al., 2013;
Utz & Beukeboom, 2011). However, the analysis of the mod-
erating effect revealed interesting evidence showing that the
perception of relationship problems associated with social
media use of own partners appeared to be more severe for the
respondents who reported that they used social media less
intensively than their partners. Conversely, for the respondents
who reported that they used social media to a greater degree
than their partners, the impacts on the perceived relationship
problems were significantly lessened.
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355
In particular, this new finding provided crucial implica-
tions for future research. While previous studies normally
explored social media use from only one partner, the
authors suggested that it was important to consider the inter-
action between individuals’ own social media use and their
partners’ social media use in order to obtain a more com-
plete picture of the impacts that social media behavior had
on relationship outcomes. This is because in reality, social
media use is not limited to just one partner; both partners
can use social media at the same time while they are
together. In fact, this phenomenon is quite normal in today’s
society where we can easily observe many love couples who
spend time together but chose to pay attention to their own
social media use rather than interacting with each other.
When individuals enjoy their own social media experiences,
they may have less concern about the relationship issues
caused by the social media use of their partners. They may
not care much whether their partners pay attention to them
or whether both of them engage in interpersonal communi-
cation or participate in activities together. Alternatively, it is
also possible that using social media may serve as a way to
help individuals cope with negative feelings from being
ignored by their partners who are obsessed with social
media. When individuals use social media to mitigate such
feelings, their perceptions of their relationship problems
may be lessened albeit not completely eliminated.
Despite the contribution that the study has made, there are
some research limitations that need to be declared. First, using
a nonprobability sampling technique can raise a concern as to
whether the sample is a true representation of the entire popu-
lation. Second, the analysis was based on cross-sectional data,
thereby making causality between the constructs difficult to
infer. Third, although the analysis showed that the validity and
reliability of all constructs were satisfactory, the scales used in
the questionnaire have not been validated yet. Fourth, using
self-reported measures can cause subjective bias in the data.
Given these limitations, the results provided in this research
should be interpreted with caution. Lastly, because this
research focused on Thai respondents, it is possible that cul-
tural characteristics of Thai people influenced their perception
of the influence of social media on romantic relationships. For
example, Thailand is among the countries that have the high-
est rate of social media use, in which 56% of the population
have an active social network account (Statista, 2015). The
collectivist nature and common tendency for Thai people to
have strong attachments to social media (Charoensukmong-
kol, 2014) may explain why individuals who enjoy their social
media experiences may be less concerned about relationship
issues that arise because of their partners’ use of social media.
Thus, future research needs to replicate the study in different
cultures to investigate whether the findings are consistent
with these.
This research also has implications for couples and family
therapy practices. Although social media can serve as a channel
through which couples and family members can communicate
closely with each other, considering the detrimental effects that
356
Figure 2. Moderating effects.
unhealthy habits of social media use may have on the quality of
interpersonal relationships, interventions are required to pre-
vent this problem. From a clinical perspective, social media
addiction is considered a mental health problem that may
require professional treatment (Kuss & Griffiths, 2011). The
primary recommendation that therapists need to provide to
couples who experience this problem is to inform them about
the negative influences of unhealthy social media behavior on
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The Family Journal: Counseling and Therapy for Couples and Families 24(4)
the quality of their relationships and to suggest that they reduce
the amount of time that they spend on social media while
together. This will help reduce the likelihood that these couples
will be distracted from engaging in real-world relationships.
Moreover, it is necessary for therapists to work closely with
these couples to evaluate and address the underlying reasons
for excessive use of social media in order to help them mitigate
relationship problems effectively.
Nongpong and Charoensukmongkol
Conclusion
In conclusion, this research has shown that an individual’s
excessive use of social media while being with a partner could
be an inappropriate behavior that causes relationship problems.
However, the degree of relationship problems associated with
this behavior is contingent on the degree of social media use of
both partners. However, regardless of who uses social media
more or less intensively than the other, in the end, this behavior
inevitably impairs the perception of relationship quality. There-
fore, it is important for individuals to beware of their own
social media use when they are with their loved ones in order
to avoid the negative consequences that might follow.
Appendix 1
Partner’s social media use (1: never, 5: always)
 Your partner liked to use social media to interact with
other people when he or she was with you (.84).
 Your partner liked to use social media to interact
with other people while doing an activity with you
(.879).
 Your partner liked to use social media to interact with
other people when he or she went out with you
(.903).
 Your partner liked to use social media to interact with
other people while having a meal with you (.851).
 When together, your partner liked to use social media to
interact with other people rather than talking to you
(.881).
 When together, your partner liked to use social media to
interact with other people and did not pay attention to
you (.844).
 You noticed that your partner liked to use social media
to interact with other people whenever he or she had a
chance (.819).
Own social media use (1: a lot less, 5: a lot more).
 You liked to use social media to interact with other
people when you were with your partner (.887).
 You liked to use social media to interact with other
people while doing an activity with your partner
(.902).
 You liked to use social media to interact with other
people when you went out with your partner (.922).
 You liked to use social media to interact with other
people while having a meal with your partner
(.927).
 When with your partner, you liked to use social media to
interact with other people rather than talking to your
partner (.94).
 When with your partner, you liked to use social media to
interact with other people and did not pay attention to
your partner (.935).
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357
 You liked to use social media to interact with other
people whenever you had a chance (.927).
Lack of caring (1: never, 5: a lot).
 You and your partner care for each other less than before
(.934).
 You and your partner are concerned less about each
other’s feelings (.956).
 You can feel more emotional distance between you and
your partner (.959).
Loneliness (1: never, 5: a lot).
 You felt lonely although your partner was with you
(.865).
 You felt like you were alone, although your partner was
with you (.943).
 You felt like no one understood you, although your part-
ner was with you (.95).
 You felt like you were left alone, although your partner
was with you (.952).
 You felt like you were abandoned, although your partner
was with you (.936).
 You felt lonesome, although your partner was with you
(.941).
Jealousy (1: never, 5: a lot).
 You felt jealous of your partner because you knew that
he or she interacted with people in social media with
whom you were not familiar (.771).
 You were anxious because you knew that your partner
interacted with people in social media with whom you
were not familiar (.834).
 You were upset because you knew that your partner
interacted with people in social media with whom you
were not familiar (.826).
 You told your partner you did not want him or her to
interact with people in social media with whom you
were not familiar (.834).
 You told your partner to stop contacting people in social
media with whom you were not familiar (.766).
 You checked your partner’s social media activities
(.866).
 You checked your partner’s mobile phone to see his or
her social media activities (.855).
 You constantly asked your partner about the people he
or she was contacting in social media (.847).
 Social media behavior of your partner made you feel that
your partner was not honest with you (.917).
 Social media behavior of your partner made you sus-
pected that your partner was not sincere with you (.908).
 You felt that your partner had contacts in social media
that he or she did not want you to know (.864).
 You felt that your partner has more secrets about his or
her social media contacts (.88).
358
Intention to break up (1: very unlikely, 5: very likely).
 You have realized that your relationship with your cur-
rent partner should not continue (.844).
 You have thought about ending the relationship with
your current partner (.862).
 You want to start a new relationship with another person
who might be better than your current partner (.868).
Declaration of Conflicting Interests
The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to
the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.
Funding
The author(s) received no financial support for the research, author-
ship, and/or publication of this article.
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