The Missing Piece: Need Fulfillment and Missing in Long Distance Relationships

Abstract

This research examines the ways in which need fulfillment and missing interacts in long distance\ud relationships. Missing is a recently developed construct that relates to an array of behavior such\ud as reminiscing one engages in when apart from a partner, and has yet to be explored in this\ud context. Given the nature of being geographically separated from a partner, certain needs that are\ud central to a relationship go unfulfilled, which should result in greater missing. It was also\ud expected that factors such as need importance, fulfillment, participant sex, social networks, and\ud attachment would serve as moderators that will either enhance of decrease the original\ud interaction. In order to test such predictions, a survey was developed and given to subjects\ud specifically in long distance relationships. The data was then analyzed through correlations and regressions. The results found a positive relationship between need fulfillment and missing,\ud which was the opposite of what was predicted. Additionally, it was found that none of the\ud moderators except attachment were significant, but this again was the opposite of the original prediction. What this shows is that need fulfillment can be seen as substitute for missing and greater attachment avoidance leads to greater more missing when needs are met