Romantic Relationship Length and its Perceived Quality: Mediating Role of Facebook-Related Conflict

The purpose of this study was to investigate how Facebook use is leading to negative relationship outcomes such as cheating and breakup by assessing users’ perceived relationship qualities. It was hypothesized that Facebook-related conflict will be negatively related with users’ relationship length and will also be negatively related with their perceived relationship satisfaction, commitment, and love. Facebook-related conflict further mediates the relationship between relationship length and perceived relationship satisfaction, commitment, and love. Self-report data were gathered from participants (N = 101) in an online survey by employing standard questionnaires. A set of regression and mediation analyses confirmed all the hypotheses of the study. That is, Facebook-related conflict mediates the relationship between relationship length and perceived relationship satisfaction, commitment, and love. Moreover, the magnitude of mediation was highest for relationship satisfaction. Implications for future research and contributions are discussed.

tionship qualities in the case of users who are currently involved in a romantic relationship. Practically, this study aims to contribute to developing strategies (e.g., couple therapy, awareness programs, campaigning etc.) to improve people's quality of life in the face of new interpersonal communication platforms. Theoretically, it contributes to extending the implication of classical interpersonal communication theory and the relational turbulence model in the case of social networking and intimate relationships.
SNSs have a potential influence on intimate relationships at a personal or impersonal level. Social relationships demand interactions and SNSs are suitable platforms allowing this (Tong, 2013). A growing body of research has demonstrated that romantic relationships between partners can be in danger in the advent of partner's Facebook jealousy, surveillance, ambiguous information presentation, compulsive Internet use, and online portrayals of intimate relationships (Kerkhof, Finkenauer, & Muusses, 2011;Muise, Christofides, & Desmarais, 2009;Papp, Danielewicz, & Cayemberg, 2012;Tokunaga, 2011;Utz & Beukeboom, 2011). Though SNS use might keep romantic partners in touch, its excessive use can be detrimental to the relationship (Clayton, 2014;Clayton et al., 2013;Joinson, 2008;Valenzuela et al., 2014).
Conflict may frequently occur in any intimate relationship (Brehm, Miller, Perlman, & Campbell, 2002). Clayton et al. (2013) introduced the construct 'Facebook-related conflict' in the context of intimate romantic relationship. They defined the construct 'Facebook-related conflict' as "whether Facebook use increases relationship complications in intimate romantic relationships" (p. 718). In their study, they found that the length of romantic relationship moderates the relation between Facebook use and Facebook-related conflict. And this conflict leads to negative relationship outcomes. This was particularly applicable for relationships that are lower in length and not fully matured.
They pointed to the fact that perhaps due to lower relationship length, partners may keep track of their relational partners' Facebook activities as an information-seeking technique for better knowing each other. However, the moderating role of relationship length was not found in another SNS (Twitter) use study (Clayton, 2014). This clearly indicates the inconsistent role of relationship length on Facebook-related conflict and demands further investigation. The accurate role of relationship length may not be explicated by treating it as a moderating variable but as an independent variable. Beside this, no study has been conducted yet to understand or explore how Facebook use relates to the perceived romantic relationship qualities of the users.
Uncertainty reduction theory (URT) posits that people seek information about their relational partners in order to reduce uncertainty concerning those partners and continue or pursue the relationship (Berger, 1979;Berger & Calabrese, 1975). The relational turbulence model further posits that relationships may experience different types of disruption even when the interaction between partners is working fine. At the beginning of any romantic relationship, partners want to know each other better. As the relationship grows mature and intimate, partners want to predict the future of the relationship. If they perceive any sort of relational uncertainty, they start to appraise one another negatively, experience jealousy and face difficulty in communicating with one another. If they cannot resolve that uncertainty, it is likely that they are going to end that relationship (Solomon & Knobloch, 2001; Solomon partner's behaviors, and communications between partners usually influence relationship satisfaction (Guerrero, 1994). Partner surveillance behavior and cognitive jealousy promote relationship dissatisfaction among undergraduate college students who are currently in a relationship (Elphinston & Noller, 2011). And disagreements over Facebook statuses with their romantic partners lower females' relationship satisfaction (Papp et al., 2012). Cramer (2000 also found that conflict negatively correlates to relationship satisfaction. In line with these findings, I argue that Facebook-related conflict promotes relationship dissatisfaction. According to Anderson and Emmers-Sommer (2006), commitment is "the extent to which people in romantic relationships experience relational cohesion (togetherness), exclusivity, and anticipated continuance of the relationship (dedication)" (p. 156). Studies showed that greater relationship commitment lowers the risk of infidelity (Drigotas, Safstrom, & Gentilia, 1999;McAnulty & Brineman, 2007). After starting any romantic relationship, partner's Facebook solicitation behavior is the marker of lower relationship commitment (Drouin, Miller, & Dibble, 2014).
Excessive Facebook use also promotes negative relationship outcomes (e.g., cheating, break up, divorce) via Facebook-related conflict (Clayton et al., 2013). These negative relationship outcomes are a sign of the partner's lower level of commitment toward the relationship. It may be thus assumed that Facebook-related conflict lowers user's relationship commitment.
The experience of love is central to any intimate relationship. A meta-analysis showed positive relationships between love and relationship satisfaction (Graham, 2011). Research also demonstrated that destructive conflict strategies negatively correlate to love (Zacchilli, Hendrick, & Hendrick, 2009). Thus, I argue that Facebook-related conflict will also be negatively correlated with user's perceived love.
H1: Relationship length and Facebook-related conflict will be negatively related.
H2a: Facebook-related conflict will be negatively related with perceived relationship satisfaction.
H2b: Facebook-related conflict will be negatively related with perceived commitment.
H2c: Facebook-related conflict will be negatively related with perceived love.
Facebook-related conflict and Twitter-related conflict play a mediating role in predicting negative relationship outcomes (Clayton, 2014;Clayton et al., 2013). Combining H1 and H2, I further argue that the lower the relationship length, the most Facebook-related conflict will occur. And this conflict will negatively influence partner's perception of relationship satisfaction, commitment, and love.
H3a: Facebook-related conflict will mediate the relationship between relationship length and perceived relationship satisfaction.
H3b: Facebook-related conflict will mediate the relationship between relationship length and commitment.
H3c: Facebook-related conflict will mediate the relationship between relationship length and love.

Participants and Procedure
A total of 101 participants voluntarily responded to an online survey created for this study. A convenient sampling technique was used to recruit the respondents. At the beginning of the survey, a preface was included to obtain their consent, to provide information about the nature of the study, and to instruct them on how to fill up the survey form. Only participants who were currently in a heterosexual romantic relationship (not married) and in the rela- Their age ranged from 18 to 34 years (M = 24.73, SD = 3.32). All of the respondents were students (undergraduate, graduate, and Ph.D. researcher).

Materials
Demographic questions (age, gender, and country of nationality), two standard survey questionnaires, and one single item questionnaire were used in the present study.
Relationship Length. Respondents were asked to report their relationship length in months in the online survey form. Their reported relationship length ranged from 3 to 120 months (M = 38.60, SD = 28.78). The

Results
Data obtained in the present study were analyzed by employing descriptive statistics, correlation, and mediation analysis. Table 1 presents the means, standard deviations, and correlations among the variables. Regarding the variables investigated, the mean score of love was highest as one of the three components of perceived relationship quality. Correlation analysis showed that relationship length negatively and significantly correlates to Facebook-related conflict. Facebook-related conflict further significantly and negatively correlates to the three components of perceived relationship quality. Moreover, the three components themselves positively and significantly correlate with each other.

Mediation Analyses
To test the mediating role of Facebook-related conflict, the conditional bootstrap analysis of Hayes (2013) was performed by employing his model 4 PROCESS macro for SPSS with 5000 bootstrap resamples. Though there was no significant direct relationship between the predictor and outcome variables in the present study, according to recent perspective and recommendation, there is still mediation to test (see MacKinnon, Fairchild, & Fritz, 2007;Rucker, Preacher, Tormala, & Petty, 2011;Shrout & Bolger, 2002 for review).  The present study sheds light on the findings of Clayton et al. (2013), Clayton (2014), and Valenzuela et al. (2014) as it brings evidence of the fact that Facebook use has the potential to decrease a user's perceived relationship satisfaction, love, and commitment. This decrement of perceived relationship qualities may relate to negative relationship outcomes. The findings of the present are also consistent with the study findings of McDaniel and Coyne (2014) which demonstrate that technoference relates to conflict increment in relationship, and this conflict is partially responsible for the perception of dissatisfaction in the relationship.
Studies employing URT as a theoretical framework revealed that level of uncertainty in any intimate relationship substantially and inversely influences relationship stability (Knobloch & Solomon, 2002;Parks & Adelman, 1983); the continuity of any relationship will also be in danger if uncertainty cannot be reduced (Levine, Kim, & Ferrara,