Adolescent Depressive Symptoms and Breakup Distress During Early Emerging Adulthood

Abstract

Breakups are a normative and frequent part of the romantic experience. In this longitudinal study, we followed 144 adolescents (mean age ¼ 16.57) for a period of 4 years and examined the extent to which level of depressive symptoms predicts the intensity of breakup distress during emerging adulthood and, further, the extent to which breakup distress reported during emerging adulthood is associated with the quality of a current romantic relationship. The findings suggest that higher levels of depressive symptoms during adolescence can lead to more difficulty in recovering from breakup in early emerging adulthood. In addition, experiencing greater breakup distress during emerging adulthood was associated with greater difficulty in handling a current romantic relationship. This association was, however, found only among women. The gender distinctive reaction to breakup distress among emerging adults is discussed.

Psychological Correlates of Ghosting and Breadcrumbing Experiences: A Preliminary Study among Adults

“…In fact, the participants who reported having suffered ghosting in the past 12 months obtained similar means for satisfaction with life, loneliness, and helplessness than those who had experienced neither ghosting nor breadcrumbing (not involved). These results contradict those found by former research into the associations on mental health of not only sentimental breakups, but also of different forms of ostracism [29,34].…”

“…The above literature review demonstrates the importance of studying the psychological correlates of ghosting and breadcrumbing victimization. However, apart from studies on ostracism and relationship breakups [32][33][34], no other study has examined the link between psychological discomfort and digital tactics to end or maintain intimate relationships. This article is the first research to examine the relation among self-reported ghosting victimization, breadcrumbing victimization, and psychological constructs in emerging and young adults.…”

Changes in rejection sensitivity across adolescence and emerging adulthood: Associations with relationship involvement, quality, and coping

“…An increasing number of emerging adults were observed to be involved in short relationships or casual sexual encounters (Claxton & van Dulmen, 2013; Shulman & Connolly, 2013) in which they might be pressured to become sexually involved (Vrangalova, 2015). In addition, due to the common changes in relationships, emerging adults need to cope quite often with breakups (Shulman, Seiffge‐Krenke, Scharf, Lev‐Ari, & Levy, 2017). While some emerging adults can also be found in lasting romantic relationships, not all of these relationships are necessarily adaptive and characterized by support and intimacy (Shulman, Seiffge‐Krenke, Scharf, Bezalel Boiangui, and Tregubenko (2016)).…”

Romantic conflict narratives and associations with psychological relationship aggression in emerging adult couples

“…Couple Member A interprets Couple Member B’s behavior as meaning the relationship is not enough of a priority and worries this means the relationship may not continue. BUA can be important for making stay or leave decisions, but it is stressful, associated with ambivalence, and experienced as disruptive to personal well-being and relationship health (Feiring et al, 2020; Joel et al, 2018; Shulman et al, 2017). Partners uncertain about the future of their relationship may be less motivated to constrain the urge to act aggressively, especially when the self is the target of a perceived transgression.…”

“…In our prior work on a different sample of individuals (not couples) in romantic relationships, narrative interpretations of romantic conflict that include BUA are related to stronger beliefs that conflict is destructive and greater relationship aggression (Feiring et al, 2018). Research has mostly focused on the reasons for or consequences of break-ups in individuals (e.g., Bravo et al, 2017; Shulman et al, 2017) and we have limited understanding of how couples’ conflict narratives that reflect relationship doubts are associated with relationship aggression. H2: BUA, in addition to anger, will be an impellance factor related to more psychological relationship aggression.…”