In recent years technology has developed significantly and rapidly become an intricate part of people’s daily life in the globalised world. There is a growing recognition that within intimate relationships, technology usage has many functions which can create both negative and positive impacts on intimacy.  Yet research on intimacy in online social relationships is still underdeveloped. This paper maps the literature on long-distance relationships and how its participants use information and communication technologies to overcome the physical detachment. The purpose of this study is to examine whether intimacy changes over Erasmus+ exchange studies in long-distance romantic and parental relationships. Data from an online survey of 100 Erasmus+ exchange students residing in Budapest, Hungary were analysed to see whether the quality of their relationship worsens during the exchange period. Based on the data collected it can be concluded that the majority of respondents does not experience critical decay in neither of their relationships and that preparation for distance communication with ICTs is not strongly connected to preventing a decay in intimacy.

Diese Dissertation untersuchte individuelle Anpassungsprozesse, die psychologische Distanz in Fernbeziehungen (FB) reflektieren und regulieren. Es wurde postuliert, dass Beziehungsqualität und -stabilität ohne Präsenz des Partners gesichert wird, indem viele kompensatorischen Prozesse auf die wahrgenommene Verfügbarkeit des Partners (Bowlby, 1969/1980), abzielen. Die Ergebnisse zeigen dass die im Vergleich zu zusammenlebenden Paaren erhöhte Bindungsängstlichkeit bei FBs die inkonsistente Verfügbarkeit des Partners reflektiert, und insgesamt für die Beziehungsentwicklung weniger schädlich ist als Vermeidung. Bindung reguliert ferner die psychologische Distanz durch den Einfluss auf adaptive Kommunikationsprozesse. Wenn Aspekte wie sexuelle Zufriedenheit nicht kompensiert werden können, scheinen FBs ihre Einschätzung der Beziehung stark auf Momente des Sehens und die Beziehungsqualität zurückzuführen. / This dissertation proposed how relationship quality and stability in long-distance relationships (LDRs) is maintained without physical presence of the partner by basing compensatory processes on perceived partner availability, a core component of attachment theory (Bowlby, 1969/1980). The findings indicate that heightened anxiety reflects the inconsistent partner availability in LDRs, and is less detrimental to relationship development than avoidance. Attachment orientations further regulated the psychological distance between partners by influencing adaptive and protective communicative processes. There was indication that when relational aspects, such as sexual satisfaction, cannot be compensated for, LDRs base their evaluation on face-to-face experiences and general relationship quality indicators. 1