Extended Abstract
Introduction
The family is the oldest human institution and the main transmitter of social and cultural beliefs. Many changes in the larger social system are rooted in the family. The change in the institution of the family is universal and exists in other societies in addition to Western societies. According to some theorists, the root of the changes in the family institution in the last few decades is the sexual revolution of the late 1960s in European and American countries which, as a result, caused the spread of extramarital and extramarital relationships. The reasons for the increase in extramarital relationships are the equality of the roles of men and women, the employment of women and the expansion of standards of sexual behavior such as contraception. Extramarital relationship is a hidden sexual, romantic or emotional relationship in a married person, in which the person violates the commitment of the marital relationship by engaging in that relationship. The purpose of this study is to investigate the type of attitude of married women towards extramarital relationships and extramarital behavior. Attempts have been made in this study to check whether it is possible to explain the attitude and behavior of married women who have extramarital affairs with the Theory of Rational Choice?
Method
The research method of this study was a survey and the data collection tool was a questionnaire. The research population consisted of 87 married women from the cities of Behshahr, Babol and Babolsar in 2021 who had extramarital relationships. The sampling method was non-random and snowball. The validity of the measurement tool was confirmed with face and content validity, and Cronbach’s alpha coefficient was used to measure the reliability of the scales related to independent and dependent variables in this research. SPSS software was also used for data analysis. In this research, the type of attitude towards extramarital relationships and extramarital behavior as dependent variables; the variables of attachment, investment, opportunity, punishment, moral beliefs, self-control, utilitarian need and pleasure-excitement were considered as independent variables.

Findings
The results of the frequency distribution table show that in general, 31% of the research respondents had a negative attitude towards extramarital relationships, 35.6% of the respondents had an average attitude, and 33.3% of the respondents had a positive attitude.
Table 1: Multiple regression model for the dependent variable of type of attitude towards extramarital relationships
The independent

The independent Variables	B	Beta	T	Sig	Correlation			Collinearity Statistics
					zero order Correlation	Partial Correlation	Semi partial Correlation	variance inflation factor	Tolerance
attachment	198/0-	065/0-	776/0-	440/0	099/0-	088/0-	062/0-	914/0	094/1
investment	252/0-	048/0-	562/0-	576/0	042/0-	063/0-	045/0-	863/0	158/1
Opportunity	492/0-	100/0-	216/1-	228/0	091/0-	136/0-	097/0-	946/0	057/1
punishment	335/0-	119/0-	309/1-	194/0	228/0-	147/0-	104/0-	771/0	297/1
moral beliefs	142/0	030/0	330/0	742/0	032/0-	037/0	026/0	771/0	297/1
self-control	014/0-	003/0-	038/0-	970/0	042/0-	004/0-	003/0-	926/0	080/1
pleasure-excitement	286/1	468/0	438/3	*001/0	676/0	363/0	274/0	343/0	912/2
utilitarian need	479/0	242/0	810/1	074/0	588/0	201/0	144/0	355/0	813/2
Correlation coefficient (R) 709/0	Coefficient of determination (R2) 503/0		R2(adj) 452/0		F 867/9		Sig 000/0

According to the above table, the correlation coefficient (R) of the independent variables with the dependent variable is 0.709, which shows a relatively strong correlation. The coefficient of determination (R2) is 0.503 and the adjusted coefficient of determination is 0.452, that is, the independent variables of the research were able to explain the changes in the dependent variable of attitude towards extramarital relations by about 50.3%. The results of the regression coefficients also show that among the independent variables, only the pleasure-excitement variable has a significance level of 0.001, which is smaller than the significance level of 0.01 And it can be said with 99% certainty that this variable had a significant impact on the attitude towards extramarital relationships among women.
 Table 2: Multiple regression model for the dependent variable of extramarital behavior
Iindependent

Iindependent Variables	B	Beta	T	Sig	Correlation			Collinearity Statistics
					zero order Correlation	Partial Correlation	Semi partial Correlation	variance inflation factor	Tolerance
Attachment	051/0-	116/0-	873/1-	065/0	132/0-	207/0-	111/0-	094/1	914/0
Investment	060/0-	079/0-	245/1-	217/0	063/0-	140/0-	074/0-	158/1	863/0
Opportunity	065/0-	091/0-	498/1-	138/0	091/0-	167/0-	089/0-	057/1	946/0
Punishment	011/0-	028/0-	415/0-	680/0	165/0-	047/0-	025/0-	297/1	771/0
moral beliefs	031/0-	045/0-	669/0-	506/0	096/0-	076/0-	040/0-	297/1	771/0
self-control	017/0	025/0	413/0	681/0	019/0-	047/0	024/0	080/1	926/0
pleasure-excitement	176/0	441/0	365/4	000/0	782/0	443/0	259/0	912/2	343/0
utilitarian need	128/0	446/0	487/4	000/0	771/0	453/0	266/0	813/2	355/0
Correlation coefficient (R) 852/0	Coefficient of determination (R2) 726/0		R2(adj) 697/0		F 849/25		Sig 000/0

As can be seen in Table No. 2, the correlation coefficient of the independent variables with the extramarital behavior variable is 0.852, which shows a high correlation coefficient. The coefficient of determination is 0.726 and the adjusted coefficient of determination is 0.697, which shows that the independent variables were able to explain the changes in the dependent variable of extramarital behavior by 72.6%. And the explanatory power of independent variables in explaining this problem has been high. Also, among the independent research variables, pleasure-excitement variables with a significance level of 0.000 And the utilitarian need variable with a significance level of 0.000 has a significant effect on the dependent variable of extramarital behavior. The significance level of these variables is smaller than the significance level of 0.01, so it can be said with 99% confidence that these variables are effective on extramarital behavior. The semi-separate correlation results showed that after controlling the effect of other independent variables on the pleasure-excitement independent variable, it was equal to 0.259 and for the utilitarian need variable it was equal to 0.266
Discussion
Among the eight hypotheses that were considered in this research, the hypotheses: attachment, investment, opportunity, punishment, moral beliefs, and self-control were rejected, and the pleasure-excitement and utilitarian need hypotheses were confirmed. The results of the seventh hypothesis of the research confirmed the existence of a direct and meaningful relationship between pleasure-excitement and the attitude of married women with extramarital relationships towards extramarital relationships. According to the theory of rational choice, the explanation of a deviant behavior is based on the benefits obtained from committing it. When the rewards are greater than the costs, criminal behavior is chosen. Benefits are not only material or economic, but also include the acquisition of psychological pleasures such as excitement and pleasure. The high excitement of a behavior increases the probability of committing it. According to the Theory of Rational Choice, crime prevention is based on reducing the opportunities and attractiveness of certain crimes. The results of the eighth hypothesis test of the research indicate the existence of a direct and meaningful relationship between utilitarian needs and the level of extramarital behavior of married women with extramarital relationships. The reason for choice and decision-making is the focus of the rational choice approach, and its assumption is that when a person is committing a crime, he seeks to increase the benefits of committing a crime for himself. According to the characteristics of the investigated crime (extra-marital relationships), social approval, social relationship, social belonging, social support, and comfort relief were considered for the variable of utilitarian needs. According to the findings, as social utilitarian needs (such as the need for respect, approval, relationship, attention and support from friends) and psychological (such as the need for comfort and pain relief) increase, the more likely they are to commit extramarital behavior. It is effective to provide and implement preventive measures and solutions in this direction to control the opportunity to commit crime.
Ethical Considerations
Authors’ contributions
All authors participated in the research. Also, all the participants participated in the research with their consent and the authors assured them that the results of the research will be confidential.
Funding
This article was not financially supported.
conflict of interest
There is no conflict of interest between the authors of the article.