Psychological Research on Jealousy in Marital Relationships: Global Research Trend

Abstract

Psychological research on jealousy in marital relationships has gained increasing scholarly attention due to its significant implications for emotional well-being, marital satisfaction, and relationship stability. Despite its importance, existing studies remain fragmented across disciplines and contexts, making it difficult to obtain a comprehensive overview of research patterns, thematic evolution, and global collaboration in this field. To address this gap, this study aims to systematically map and analyze the intellectual structure, publication trends, and collaborative networks of psychological research on jealousy in
marital relationships using a bibliometric approach. Data were collected from the Scopus database using an advanced search strategy with the keywords marital jealousy, marital  relationships, intimate relationships, psychological research, and psychology. After applying the inclusion criteria, a total of 581 publications were retrieved for the final dataset. Scopus Analyzer was employed to examine publication trends, citation patterns, and country-level productivity, while OpenRefine was used to clean, standardize, and harmonize the bibliographic data to ensure analytical accuracy. VOSviewer software was  subsequently utilized to generate visualizations of author keyword co-occurrence and international co-authorship collaboration networks. The findings reveal a clear upward trend in publications over time, with a notable surge in recent years, indicating growing academic interest in the topic. Country analysis shows that research output is dominated by a small number of highly industrialized nations, particularly the United States and the United Kingdom, while keyword co-occurrence analysis identifies major thematic clusters related to marital satisfaction, mental health, stress, conflict, and emotional well-being. Collaboration network analysis further highlights the central role of leading research countries in facilitating international partnerships. Overall, this bibliometric study provides a comprehensive overview of the knowledge structure and research dynamics of psychological studies on jealousy in marital relationships, offering valuable insights for scholars and practitioners and identifying directions for future  interdisciplinary and cross- cultural research.