Effective Factors in Staying in the Relationship Following Marital Infidelity Disclosure: A Qualitative Study

Marital infidelity is considered one of the most important risk factors of marital relationships, the disclosure of which puts the betrayed individual in a dilemma of staying or leaving the relationship. The current research aimed to investigate the factors that made women who were betrayed decide to continue their relationship with their husbands despite disclosing their husbands’ infidelity. The statistical population of this study included all the betrayed women of Kerman who remained in the relationship despite the disclosure of their husbands’ betrayal. The sample included 16 women who were betrayed in Kerman. They were selected purposively using theoretical and snowball sampling methods. The data were collected through semi-structured in-depth interviews. In addition, the data was analyzed through the qualitative method of Grounded Theory and the systematic analysis approach of Strauss and Corbin. The analysis of the obtained data led to the identification of 38 concepts and 12 axial codes, which were categorized into three general conditions: causal conditions, contextual conditions, and intervening conditions, all centered around the main theme of "staying after spousal infidelity disclosure." The results of this study indicated that the betrayed women continued to live with their spouses under causal conditions (i.e., the presence of children, affection for the spouse, spouse’s trust-building behaviors, lack of family support, mutual infidelity, and attitudes and beliefs), contextual conditions (i.e., social and cultural pressures, personal and psychological characteristics, and legal constraints on women), and intervening conditions (i.e., financial and economic issues, the type of spouse’ betrayal, and the support of the spouse’s family).