Openness to "Sugar Relationships" Reflects Personality and Emotional Vulnerabilities in a Representative Sample of...

Openness to sugar relationships-arrangements in which companionship or sexual intimacy is exchanged for material benefits within loosely structured, mutually negotiated agreements-has garnered growing attention in psychological research. However, little is known about the underlying personality and emotion regulation patterns associated with such attitudes. In this preregistered study, we examined whether early maladaptive schemas (EMS), personality functioning (LPFS-BF 2.0), and cognitive emotion regulation strategies (CERQ) predicted openness to sugar relationships (ASR) in a large, demographically stratified sample of young Hungarian women (N = 500; ages 18-35). Participants completed validated self-report questionnaires. General linear models revealed that ASR scores were significantly predicted by impaired personality functioning and maladaptive emotion regulation strategies. Furthermore, these vulnerabilities were strongly associated with elevated EMS scores. Structural equation modeling supported a mediation model in which EMS indirectly predicted ASR via emotion regulation and personality functioning. These findings suggest that openness to sugar relationships may reflect not only strategic or permissive attitudes but also deeper vulnerabilities in self and relational functioning. By integrating dimensional models of personality pathology and emotion regulation with emerging research on transactional sexual attitudes, this study highlights the psychological underpinnings of receptivity to sugar relationships. The results underscore the need to view such relational preferences within a broader developmental and psychological framework rather than moral or economic lenses. This is the first study to establish these associations using a representative sample of young women, contributing to a more nuanced understanding of individual differences in sexual attitudes and behaviors.