Back burners are people with whom one communicates to potentially establish a future romantic or sexual relationship, and these relationships are common among college students. Using a sample of noncollege adults currently in committed relationships (N = 246) obtained via Amazon's MTurk, this study examines how a prior relationship role with a desired back burner (i.e., whether a back burner was an ex-partner or not) affects digital communication and sexual activity with back burners, and participants' negative affect. Sequential mediation analysis revealed that when the most-desired back burner was also an ex-partner (vs. not), participants digitally communicated more, increased communication was positively related to sexual activity with that back burner, and sexual activity was associated with negative affect in the participant. Even in the absence of sexual activity, both increased digital communication and simply having an ex-partner as one's most-desired back burner were associated with negative affect. Limitations and implications for staying in touch with ex-partners are discussed.

中文翻译：

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在炉子上煨还是玩火？检查前合伙人之间的逆火数字通信的后果

Backburners 是指与人交流以潜在地建立未来的浪漫或性关系的人，这些关系在大学生中很常见。使用目前处于忠诚关系中的非大学成年人样本（N = 246）通过亚马逊的 MTurk 获得，这项研究检查了与期望的后备人员的先前关系角色（即，后备人员是否是前伴侣）如何影响与后备人员的数字交流和性活动，以及参与者的负面影响影响。顺序中介分析显示，当最想要的副手也是前伴侣时（与不是），参与者通过数字方式进行更多的交流，增加的交流与与该副手的性活动呈正相关，而性活动与负面影响相关在参与者。即使在没有性活动的情况下，增加数字通信和简单地将前伴侣作为一个人最想要的次要关系都与负面影响有关。