Oral papers
Extradyadic Behavior: What Does Really Hurt? Italian Telephone and E-Mail Counselling Service
L. Nocito
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Institute of Clinical Sexology, Rome, Italy
D. Botta
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Institute of Clinical Sexology, Rome, Italy
F. Tripodi
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Institute of Clinical Sexology, Rome, Italy
R. Rossi
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Institute of Clinical Sexology, Rome, Italy
https://doi.org/10.21465/2016-KP-OP-0057
Fulltext (english, pages 86-86).pdf
Abstracts
Objective: To investigate the concerns and requests reported by users on extra dyadic behavior in an Italian counselling service, to point out the differences, if there are any, between male and female users, to underline what really does hurt and to describe the most frequent extra dyadic behavior given to service’s consultants.
Design and Method: The study included selected records of the calls (n = 1873) and of the e-mail (n= 200) received during the 3-year period between 2013 and 2015 focusing on the requests on the extra dyadic behavior. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and bivariate analysis.
Results: Users who asked for help after an extradyadic behavior were more often female, aged between 26 and 54 years, who had not sought any previous help. The most frequent concerns of female users were fear of not being able to forgive or need to forget, while the majority of male reported disappointment and anger. Furthermore men engaging in extradyadic behaviors, both face-to-face and online, were more numerous than women.
Conclusions: The users’ reaction to cheating depends on the causes attributed to this. Telephone and e-mail counselling is an important and effective resource to elicit requests that otherwise might remain hidden; therefore, it can be a useful link between the health-care system and callers.