Table 1. Descriptive statistics, tests of mean differences, and effect sizes for the primary and secondary relationships on major study variables.
| Variable | Primary Relationship | Secondary Relationship | Paired Data | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| M | SD | M | SD | na | rb | t | d | |
| Relationship acceptance: Family | 7.95 | 1.87 | 4.29 | 2.45 | 868 | .08 | 36.40 | 1.68 |
| Relationship acceptance: Friends | 8.45 | 1.18 | 6.28 | 2.25 | 872 | .17 | 27.20 | 1.19 |
| Romantic secrecy | 1.92 | 1.81 | 5.29 | 3.11 | 875 | .23 | -30.89 | -1.27 |
| Investment size | 7.90 | 1.24 | 5.15 | 2.03 | 875 | .26 | 39.00 | 1.60 |
| Relationship satisfaction | 7.80 | 1.30 | 6.40 | 1.56 | 875 | .10 | 21.41 | 0.97 |
| Quality of alternatives | 5.92 | 1.70 | 6.44 | 1.59 | 874 | .55 | -10.01 | -0.32 |
| Commitment level | 8.54 | 0.94 | 6.31 | 1.94 | 874 | .19 | 33.20 | 1.39 |
| Relationship communication | 5.38 | 1.45 | 3.98 | 1.45 | 908 | .43 | 27.35 | 0.97 |
| Quality of communication | 4.47 | 0.78 | 3.59 | 0.94 | 918 | .17 | 23.85 | 1.01 |
| Percentage of sexual activity | 20.74 | 21.11 | 37.11 | 27.48 | 860 | .03 | -14.09 | -0.70 |
a The sample size varies across analyses because of missing or incomplete data for one or both partners. The analyses were re-run using the subset of participants who responded to every question included in our primary analyses. The effects are essentially the same. Please see the output in the supplementary materials on the OSF: https://osf.io/gxtcn/.
b r = the correlation between scores for primary and secondary relationships.