Mapping Perceived Partner Phubbing, Triangular Love, and Relationship Quality: A Psychometric Network Analysis

Partner phubbing-attending to one's phone during interactions with a romantic partner-has been associated with poorer relationship functioning, yet its behavior-level links with the components of Sternberg's triangular theory of love remain unclear, and existing evidence is largely variable-centered. This study estimated a psychometric network linking specific perceived partner phubbing behaviors with intimacy, passion, commitment, and global relationship quality. A cross-sectional study was conducted with 476 adults in romantic relationships. Partner phubbing, triangular love, and perceived relationship quality were assessed using validated questionnaires. A regularized partial-correlation network (EBICglasso based on Spearman correlations) was estimated across 13 nodes. Two coherent communities emerged, representing phubbing and relationship constructs. Within-community connections were strong and positive, whereas cross-community connections were negative and very weak; no cross-community partial correlation exceeded |0.05| despite small-to-moderate zero-order correlations (ρ = -0.25 to -0.33). Global relationship quality and intimacy showed the strongest links to phubbing, whereas passion and commitment were more peripheral. Behaviors involving phone use during interaction (glancing at the phone while talking, checking it mid-conversation, and using it while out together) showed relatively higher estimated cross-community associations, although these were weak and not individually reliable. Expected-influence centrality was highly stable (CS = 0.75), bridge centrality showed moderate stability (CS = 0.45), and findings were robust across correlation methods (edge-weight r = 0.98). Overall, partner phubbing and triangular love formed two coherent but weakly connected communities. The observed behavior-level bridges should be interpreted as hypothesis-generating rather than evidence of causal relationships. Because phubbing was reported by only one partner, the findings concern perceived partner phubbing rather than directly observed behavior and may be affected by single-informant bias.