Communicating with back burners among college students according to relationship status and love styles

ABSTRACT Back burner relationships are prospective sexual/romantic partners that individuals communicate with for purposes of developing a sexual and/or romantic relationship. This study analyzed 762 college students with regard to sex, relationship status, love styles, and numbers of back burners. Men reported more back burners with whom they sometimes communicated in a romantic/sexual way than did women, and singles and casual daters averaged more of these back burners than did those in committed relationships. Numbers of back burners with whom participants communicated with in a strictly platonic way did not differ by sex or relationship status. Having a more ludic love style corresponded to having more total back burners, while increased storge corresponded to fewer romantic/sexual back burners. Sex and/or relationship status may matter less to the wholesale practice of maintaining back burners and more to the nature of the communication with one’s back burners.