Introduction

A relationship, in any of its multiple manifestations, makes its constituents responsible for coexisting, mediating conflicts, and resolving different faults and transgressions that may occur in the establishment of this bond. Infidelity is a transgression in the relationship that’s considered a grave fault (^{Shrout & Weigle, 2017}).

Experts in the field in different parts of the world describe infidelity as a violation of the exclusivity agreement in sexual and emotional relationships, even if there is no legal agreement (^{Díaz et al., 2002}; ^{Guilbault et al., 2019}; ^{González, Martínez & Martínez, 2009}; ^{Haseli et al., 2019}; ^{Mark, Janssen & Milhausen, 2011}; ^{Rivera et al., 2020}; ^{Wenger & Frisco, 2020}). There is a scientific consensus that identifies two types of infidelity, the first one is sexual infidelity, which implies having sexual relations with another person that isn’t the partner, and there is emotional infidelity, which occurs when one partner falls in love with someone different from their partner (^{Adam, 2019}; ^{Canto et al., 2017}; ^{García, Rivera & Díaz, 2011}; ^{Guitar et al., 2016}; ^{Martins et al., 2015}; ^{Moller & Vossler, 2015}).

The research in this line points out the differences in the unfaithful behavior associated with multiple variables, one of them being gender, by consistently identifying that men are more likely to commit sexual infidelity, while women tend to participate more in emotional infidelity (^{Guilbault et al., 2019}; ^{Isma & Turnip, 2019}; ^{Martins et al., 2015}; ^{Selterman, García & Tsapelas, 2017}; ^{Starratt, Weekes & Shakelford, 2016}), since women can be motivated mainly by feelings of abandonment, indifference from their partner, or lack of affection; in the case of men, monotony, and desire for sexual variety are the main precipitating factors for unfaithful behaviors (^{Arantes, Barros & Oliveira, 2020}; ^{Munsch & Yorks, 2017}; ^{Selterman, García & Tsapelas, 2017}).

The difference between genders also determines the response to the experience of infidelity from a partner, for men tend to express more feelings of jealousy and angst as a consequence of sexual involvement from their partners, while women show elevated levels of jealousy and angst, only it is due to emotional infidelity from their partners (^{Canto et al., 2017}; ^{Saleem, Nazeer & Durrani, 2020}).

The research is sufficient in pointing out that the motivations for infidelity derive from multiple factors and may be related to personal causes, deficits in the couple’s relationship, or socio-sexual and situational causes (^{McDaniel, Drouin, & Cravens, 2017}; ^{Negash & Morgan, 2016}; ^{Selterman, García & Tsapelas, 2017}). Regarding personal factors, it has been identified that unfaithful behavior is facilitated by the presence of various personality traits such as extroversion, neuroticism, low levels of agreeableness, and conscientiousness (^{van Zyl, 2020}). Furthermore, in regard to the deficiencies in the relationship perceived by the unfaithful partner, we describe the frequency and levels of conflict, and the low satisfaction in the relationship (^{Ferron, Lussier, & Brassard, 2017}; ^{Guilbault et al., 2019}; ^{Isma & Turnip, 2019}; ^{Rivera et al., 2020}), as well as the low value assigned to the partner (^{Arantes, Barros & Oliveira, 2020}; ^{Starratt, Weekes & Shalkelford, 2016}).

The studies in the line of research of infidelity have identified that unfaithful behavior is predictable. The most reliable factors for its prediction are interpersonal: desire, love, satisfaction and duration in the relationship (^{Vowels, Vowels & Mark, 2021}), other variables that predict unfaithful behavior is the history of infidelity in past relationships, as well as having experienced infidelity from a partner (^{Arantes, Barros & Oliveira, 2020}; ^{Knopp et al., 2017}).

Infidelity has various consequences for the partner of the unfaithful person, including depression and excessive alcohol consumption (^{Wenger & Frisco, 2020}), stress, anxiety, guilt, shame, angst, anger, obsessive rumination, and suppression of emotions (^{Roos et al., 2019}; ^{Shrout & Weigel, 2017}). The degree of how much the partner of the unfaithful partner is affected will also depend on their high or low self-esteem (^{Shrout & Weigel, 2019}), chronic jealousy, which can contribute to lower or worsen the degree of stress, as well as negative feelings (^{Shrout & Weigel, 2019}), and anxiety caused by the unfaithful behavior (^{Canto et al., 2017}).

In the last decade, the importance of analyzing unfaithful behavior from an ecological relationship system, derived from Bronfenbrenner’s ecological systems theory (1977) has been recognized. The conceptual model integrates different factors associated with infidelity in a system constituted by the microsystem, that is to say, individual characteristics from the subject and their partner that influence the sexual behavior; the mesosystem references the interactions between partners, such as satisfaction, commitment, and conflict; the exosystem refers to the description of face-to-face or virtual social environment that provides opportunities for cheating, such as social networks or the workplace; the macrosystem refers to the social and cultural principles that determine the level of acceptance or rejection from society towards infidelity, such as religion and gender roles. Lastly, the chronosystem is determined by the events that occur during the duration of the different stages of life that influence unfaithful behaviors, identified as experiences in their life history (^{Haseli et al., 2019}; ^{Negash & Morgan, 2016}; ^{Selterman, García & Tsapelas, 2017}; ^{Vowels, Vowels & Mark, 2021}).

The study of infidelity from a broader perspective has identified that it has a social impact, whose consequences extend beyond the couple, as it affects the family structure by breaking the relationship and communication with children, extended family and family friends (^{Vowels, Vowels & Mark, 2021}), being the nuclear family probably the most damaged system (^{Negash & Morgan, 2016}), different repercussions have been documented in the children who, at the moment of learning about the infidelity, cause them resentment, disappointment, apathy, passivity, anger and distancing from the unfaithful parent, as well as in future moments in the life of the children, who, when establishing their own relationships, generate doubts, fears, suspicion and risks, when they perceive that cheating is probably a behavior that will also be present in their relationship. Moreover, it has been identified that the episodes of infidelity of one of their parents can also contribute so that, from the family crisis caused, the children of unfaithful couples learn to recognize feelings and emotions that allow them to contribute to the establishment of much better couple relationships than the one formed by their parents (^{de Castro et al., 2016}).

In addition to the impact on the family, infidelity also affects health, as it increases the risk of experiencing symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder that affect the partner’s physical and emotional health, associated with symptoms of depression, perceived stress, and anxiety (^{Roos et al., 2019}; ^{Shrout & Weigel, 2019}), and, at the same time, people who tend to involve themselves in sexual infidelity are more likely to have to deal with sexual health risks (^{Negash & Morgan, 2016}), such as sexually transmitted diseases (^{Vowels, Vowels & Mark, 2021}). As a matter of fact, in Mexico, the number of cases of sexually transmitted diseases has risen: syphilis increased by 84%, chlamydia 48%, chancroid (soft chancre) 22%, genital herpes 16%, and HIV 62%, an increase identified when comparing the years 2020 and 2021 (^{DGE, 2021}).

It is undeniable that unfaithful behavior is one of the main reasons for the dissolution of the legal bond of the couple (^{Isma & Turnip, 2019}; ^{Lampard, 2014}). In Mexico, the relationship between divorce and marriage has increased significantly from 2000 to 2019, from 7 to 32 divorces by 100 marriages, practically quintupled (^{INEGI, 2021}).

Due to its high prevalence and consequences, infidelity is a relevant issue, since various biological, psychological, social, and cultural factors influence its occurrence or inhibition, with uninhibited and open sexual behavior being a facilitating factor (^{Romero, Cruz & Diaz, 2008}). Different researches have described the relationship of infidelity with other variables of interest, for example, jealousy, a variable widely studied to know its impact on infidelity, identifying that after an infidelity more jealousy and anguish are experienced (^{Miller & Maner, 2009}), but which can also have the function of strengthening the relationship with the partner in the face of a third party’s threat (^{Saleem, Nazeer & Durrani, 2020}), there are also gender differences in the way jealousy is experienced, as men manifest it mainly through anger or aggression, while women express it through sadness or depression (^{Calderón, Flores & Rivera, 2018}).

Infidelity, jealousy, and lack of communication have been identified as the most important triggers of conflict in a relationship, as a result of the violation of the exclusivity agreement (^{Scott et al., 2017}), these affect the quality of communication by hindering the stability and cohesion of the relationship, which generates real or imaginary suspicions towards the partner, as well as loss of trust, conditions that lead to a poor and unassertive communication (^{Guillén et al., 2021}; ^{Isaza, 2011}), associated with an increase in negative behaviors emitted during conflicts (^{Leone et al., 2020}), this affects the quality of the relationship and generates the necessary conditions for the search for a new infidelity (^{Guillén et al., 2021}; ^{Isaza, 2011}; ^{Rivera et al., 2011}).

Based on the above, it is identified that there are still no studies that offer evidence about the description of proximal variables such as conflict management, jealousy, communication styles, and sexual behavior in young Latin American university students, so the objective of this research is to identify groups of young university students formed from the infidelity variable, describing them from proximal variables (conflict management, jealousy, communication styles in the couple and sexual behavior).

Method

Results

From the k-means statistical analysis, three groups were identified: group 1: “Emotional infidelity desire”; group 2: “Non-infidels”, and group 3: “Sexual infidels”.

The following describes each group in Table 1:

Group 1: Emotional infidelity desire. Comprised of 54 people, which represents 25% of the total sample size, made up by 45 women (83.3% of the group) and 9 men (16.7% of the group), is characterized for expressing only desires of emotional infidelity, that is to say, to establish a romantic bond with another person in addition to the main partner, which manifests in aspects such as interest, attraction or liking other people, even though they do not present conducts or desires for sexual infidelity.

Group 2: Non-infidels. Comprised of 152 people, is the majority group with 70.4% of the total sample size, is composed of 125 women (82.2% of the group) and 27 men (17.8% of the group), and is characterized by not presenting behaviors or desires of sexual or emotional infidelity.

Group 3: Sexual infidels. Comprised of 10 people, which represent 4.6% of the total sample size, two women (20% of the group) and eight men (80% of the group), is characterized for rarely presenting behaviors of emotional infidelity, and sometimes presenting behaviors of sexual infidelity, manifested after having had sexual contact with another person that was not their partner, and, in addition, sometimes show a desire to be sexually and emotionally involved with other people other than their partner.

Discussion

The study made it possible to fulfill the general objective of the research by identifying the existence of three university groups formed on the basis of the infidelity variable: “Emotional infidelity desire”, “Non-infidels”, and “Sexual infidels”, with significant differences between them, based on the study variables: Conflict, Jealousy, Communication, and Sexual conduct.

The first group identified is “Desire for emotional infidelity”, characterized by a desire to establish romantic ties with other people, showing interest, attraction, and liking for other people, although they do not engage in sexual or emotional infidelity. The second group, “Non-infidels”, is the majority group and does not present desire or unfaithful behaviors, whether it be sexual or emotional. The members of the third group “Sexual infidels” represent the people with conducts of sexual infidelity, such as having had sexual contact with other people different from their main partner, and also presenting desires of emotional and sexual involvement with other people. Similar results to those reported by ^{González, Martínez & Martínez (2009)} and ^{Britos et al. (2019)}, who identify different clusters developed from their unfaithful behavior, in groups of young university students.

The study allows us to conclude that each identified group shows specific characteristics according to the proximal variables studied. The youth in the “Desire for emotional infidelity” group sometimes show indifference upon a conflict with their partner, and prefer not talking and staying away to avoid conflict; in communicating with their partner, they rarely do so in a harmful, manipulative or dishonest way, similar results were reported by ^{Rivera et al. (2011)}, who noted that conflict is linked to infidelity, as are ^{López, Vargas & Cortés (2018)} who posit that conflict resolution avoidance strategies are an important factor in realizing infidelity. Conflict is a component of the mesosystem, as it occurs in the interaction between two or more people (^{Haseli et al., 2019}), so the use of ineffective coping strategies can be a precursor to unfaithful behavior or desire (^{Isaza, 2011}; ^{Rivera et al., 2011}).

On the other hand, the members of the group called “Non-infidels”, when faced with a couple’s conflict, express themselves openly, seek solutions through dialogue and express their ideas in a calm manner, try to calm down and stop, findings that are consistent with other studies in which it is suggested that proper conflict resolution in the couple’s relationship works as a protective factor that prevents sexual or emotional involvement of the partners with other partners (^{Armin, Fakhri & Hasanzadeh, 2021}; ^{Yoosefi, Karimipour, & Amani, 2016}).

The results mentioned can be explained because it has been identified that unfaithful behavior tends to increase conflicts and decrease positive conducts and increase negative ones (^{Ferron et al., 2017}; ^{Leone et al., 2020}), therefore, it is hypothesized that this group of young people, not having unfaithful behaviors, present more positive styles for conflict resolution, through dialogue and the calm expression of ideas.

Regarding jealousy, the non-infidels group is the least jealous, since they do not have frequent thoughts or insecurities about the possible infidelity of their partner, they do not feel a sense of failure in the face of their partner’s transgressions nor do they avoid situations that provoke jealousy or worry about not being the center of attention of their partners, results similar to what is reported in other research such as that of ^{Miller & Maner (2009)}, who propose that the most jealous people tend to damage their relationship through insecurity, excessive doubts, and infidelity, for their part, ^{López, Vargas & Cortés (2018)} propose that jealousy is associated with unfaithful behavior, since unfaithful people use jealousy as a way to justify their unfaithful behavior, for the results of this study, by not presenting the behavior or desire for infidelity, it is identified that jealousy is not presented as a compensatory means of fault in the relationship.

In regards to communication with their partner, the “Non-infidels” group communicates in a gentle, kind, effective, and respectful manner with their partner, results explained based on what was pointed out by ^{López et al. (2013}) and ^{López, Vargas & Cortés (2018)}, which indicate that open and effective conflict resolution styles show positive couple communication, as well as adequate conflict resolution in the relationship with their partner, thus identifying that effective communication in the couple reduces the likelihood of infidelity (^{Allen et al., 2008}).

It is also concluded that the members of the Non-infidels group have not performed behaviors aimed at attracting, courting or conquering other people, nor have they had sexual contact with other people, have not been sexually stimulated, nor have they included sexual variants to enrich their sexual life (such as making use of objects or circumstances), results that can be explained due to these behaviors being perceived by people as unfaithful behaviors (^{Arantes, Barros & Oliveira, 2020}; ^{Romero, Cruz & Díaz, 2008}; ^{Scott et al., 2017}), so that their absence coincides with the description of the members of this group.

In reference to the description of the third group: “Sexual infidels”, it is concluded that they show differences in relations with the other two groups, specifically when it comes to sexual conduct, that is to say, they show a higher presence of these conducts, such as: physical touching, sexual foreplay, coital and oral sex, as well as grooming, courtship and conquest behaviors, which are aimed at attracting and pleasing others, and have also performed sexual stimulation and gratification behaviors, such as masturbation and viewing pornography, and have included sexual variants, like using objects, stimuli, and circumstances that enrich their sexual life. These results concur with other research that support that unfaithful people tend to have a more active sex life, and as the frequency or sexual satisfaction with their partners decreases, they tend to seek new partners (^{Scott et al., 2017}), in addition to making more use of pornography (^{Ferron et al., 2017}).

Although men were a minority in this sample, it is important to note that, despite this, they were the majority in the group called “Sexual infidels”, which comes to join the large number of studies that argue that men have more unfaithful behaviors than women, a situation that can be explained by sociocultural, biological or evolutionary aspects, since men show greater openness to have more partners, in addition to the fact that male infidelity is culturally less reprimanded than female infidelity (^{Guilbault et al., 2019}; ^{Isma & Turnip, 2019}; ^{Martins et al., 2015}), by noting that sexual variants are a strong predictor of sexual infidelity in men (^{Romero, Cruz & Diaz, 2008}), which coincides with this research, since this group is mainly composed of men.

It is important to highlight that unfaithful conduct is a multifactorial phenomenon, influenced by different factors, therefore, the analysis of various variables can shine a light on the mechanisms that intervene in or that predict it (^{Negash & Morgan, 2016}).

In this sense, Urie Bronfenbrenner’s ecological systems theory is very useful to understand this phenomenon (^{Haseli et al., 2019}), as it shows how the interaction of various systems, such as the microsystem, integrated by individual characteristics, can show a tendency towards infidelity, although aspects such as the mesosystem, that is, the interaction between the individual microsystem and that of other people, in this case, the partner, can be an important element, both systems analyzed in this study, by providing differentiated information in the groups of Infidels and Non-infidels.

In this investigation, aspects such as adequate conflict resolution or good communication, elements included in the mesosystem, are characteristic of people who are not prone to unfaithful behavior, be it sexual or emotional, so they may be indicators that effective interaction with the partner is a factor that prevents unfaithful behavior.

The limitations of this study have to be taken into account, since there was no equity in the proportion between men and women, albeit that was not the objective of the research; furthermore, due to the fact that the participants are all university students, these results cannot be generalized to the whole population.

Finally, it is important to note that unfaithful behavior can also be influenced by individual factors in people, such as perceiving themselves as more attractive, the ease of engaging in conquest and courtship actions, and a greater sexual desire (^{Arantes, Barros, & Oliveira, 2020}), personality traits such as extroversion, neuroticism, or low levels of agreeableness (^{Van Zyl, 2020}), more liberal sexual attitudes (^{Vowels, Vowels, & Mark, 2021}), low levels of self-control (^{Rodrigues, Lopes, & Pereira, 2016}), having an insecure attachment style towards the partner (^{Guilbault et al. , 2019}; ^{Negash & Morgan, 2016}; ^{Selterman, Garcia & Tsapelas, 2017}), using infidelity as a means to increase self-esteem (^{Guilbault et al., 2019}), or by previous infidelities in previous partners (^{Martins et al., 2015}), variables that are suggested to be studied in future research.