The relationship between romantic jealousy and romantic relationship beliefs in college students

The aim of the current study is to determine the relationship between romantic jealousy levels and romantic relationship beliefs in college students. In addition to this main goal, the study also examines whether romantic jealousy levels and dysfunctional romantic relationship beliefs differ in terms of gender, self-perception of jealousy, experiences in the past and current relationship status. The study was completed with 509 students from various faculties and departments in Çukurova University. The data related to students' romantic jealousy levels was gathered using the Romantic Jealousy Scale, which was originally developed by Pines and Aronson (1983) and adapted to Turkish by Demirtaş (2004). The data about dysfunctional romantic relationship beliefs was gathered using the Relationship Beliefs Scale, which was developed by Romans and DeBord (1995) and adapted to Turkish by Gizir (2012). Additionally, to gather personal information and family features, the researcher prepared the Personal Information Form. For data analysis, the researcher used the Pearson Product-Moment Correlation, Independent Samples t-Test and the Mann Whitney U Test which is originally a nonparametric test. The study findings suggest that there are meaningful and positive relationships among the jealousy trigger levels and the total scores of dysfunctional relationship beliefs of students and all subscales of the Relationship Beliefs Scale. However, while there is a positive relationship between the total score of students' dysfunctional beliefs and their cognitive, physical and emotional reactions, constructive coping, fear of loss and the negative and positive effects of jealousy subscales, there is not a meaningful relationship between destructive coping, feelings of inadequacy, and the total score of dysfunctional relationship beliefs. Considering the students' scores in terms of gender, there are meaningful differences among boys and girls under the following subscales: cognitive reactions, constructive coping, positive and negative effects in the Romantic Jealousy Scale, and under the subscales of "We should meet all the needs of each other", "We should do everything together" and "We should be able to change each other" in the Relationship Beliefs Scale. Considering the total scores of students in terms of whether they perceive themselves as jealous, the researcher observed meaningful differences between jealousy triggers, physical, cognitive and emotional reactions, constructive coping, positive effects of the jealousy subscales of the Romantic Jealousy Scale and the total score of dysfunctional beliefs. In terms of past and current relationship variables, jealousy triggers differentiate significantly. With regard to dysfunctional relationship beliefs, there was no difference between the scores of students who had past romantic relationship experiences and those who did not, whereas the students who are currently in relationships were found to have more dysfunctional relationship beliefs than those who are not. Keywords: Romantic jealousy, jealousy, relationship beliefs, romantic relationships, dysfunctional beliefs.