Motives for Consensual Non-Monogamous Relationships

Potential reasons for engaging in polyamory.

• Polyamory refers to having romantic or sexual relationships with multiple individuals, with the consent of all involved.

• A recent systematic research and theoretical analysis discusses reasons why some people engage in polyamory.

• Motivations for engaging in polyamory include, among others, those related to autonomy, sexual diversity, identity development, and belonging.

Polyamory refers to the desire for and the practice of engaging in consensual non-monogamous romantic or sexual relationships with multiple partners.
A recent paper by Hnatkovicova and Bianchi suggests there are eight motivations for polyamory. These include psychodynamic motivations, the satisfaction of needs not met in a monogamous romantic relationship, and the fulfillment of needs related to personal growth, identity development, expression of one’s political views, belonging to a community, sexual diversity, and the exploration of minority identities (e.g., bisexuality).
The study, published in the September issue of Sexologies, is discussed after an introduction to polyamory. 

8 Motives for Consensual Non-Monogamous Relationships