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MONOGAMY MONOGAMY and

! It’s your keptic back ghts into our s g g a d esty e ad e tu es! Today, I am reviewing an article from the Journal of Sex Research in 2015: Consensual Nonmonogamy: Psychological Well-Being and Relationship Quality Correlates. This article comes from Alicia N. Rubel, from Brock University Department of Psychology, and Anthony F. Bogaert, from the same university’s Health Sciences and Psychology Department.

BY: POPPUNKPINEAPPLE

I know many (probably most) of us have seen TikToks, YouTube videos, and all sorts of proswinger media that promise that swinging is the sun and stars. Speaking personally, I can say that joining the Swinger Society and finding a community of like-minded, non-monogamous creatures has meant a great deal to me personally. It made me feel like I had finally found a community that understood me better than any group of people I had been a part of before. In that vein, though, we should always be realistic about what we say when we advocate for the lifestyle. That’s what this article gets after. The question Rubel and Bogaert seek to answer is, “Does consensual nonmonogamy of various forms trend with psychological well-being and relationship quality?”

No spoilers! You should read to the end of the article to find the results! But let’s talk about the research itself. The authors look at three consensual non-monogamy (CNM) types: swinging, open relationships, and polyamory. This paper is effectively a “study of studies,” which takes results from 40 years of peer-reviewed research to get an outcome most representative of fact. The authors give some ratings to the previous research to rate their quality. They also let readers know that any research in this area has some big caveats and issues. Let’s talk about them for a bit.

First, as we know, larger societies often view swingers as “illegitimate and objectionable.” This trend is seen in societies worldwide, irrespective of rage, religion, or color. Because of that, swinger communities are often secretive, secluded, or willingly removed from popular discourse (I encourage us all to take a moment and appreciate that we have an environment where we can be, if not 100% ‘out,’ at least a measure more ‘out’ than previous generations). The nature of that secrecy and seclusion leads to survey answer rates that are small and non-representative.

Second, self-reporting studies (which studies in this field often are) are flawed because self-reporting individuals tend to skew answers based on their preferred view of themselves and their community. Third, the best kinds of studies are randomized and double-blinded. With the body of research available, that’s highly difficult to accomplish. So, before we talk about the specific results of this study, we should remember that most studies of relationships, particularly relationships considered “taboo” in various ways, should be taken with a grain of salt.