Stalking Following the Breakup of Romantic Relationships: Characteristics of Stalking Former Partners

Abstract

This study investigated female experiences of stalking by former partners following the dissolution of heterosexual romantic relationships. It aimed to identify those characteristics of former partners that were associated with stalking as opposed to other post-relationship experiences of minor harassment or no-harassment. Three hundred and five female undergraduates (all had experienced dissolution of a heterosexual romantic relationship) completed a 48-item questionnaire. This assessed characteristics of participants, former partners, and experiences of harassment following the relationship. One hundred and five (34.4%) participants were classified as stalking victims; ninety-eight (32.1%) as suffering harassment, and 102 (33.4%) as experiencing no-harassment. No differences were found between the three groups in demographic characteristics of participants or former partners. Stalking former partners were most likely to have: a history of substance use (alcohol and/or drugs); criminal involvement; violence; mental health problems; difficulties in forming relationships; reacting with inappropriate emotion and jealousy and suspiciousness of the participant's relationships with others. These results add to an emerging profile of former partners who are likely to engage in stalking following the dissolution of romantic relationships. The findings are also consistent with explanations of stalking behavior that stress the etiological importance of attachment difficulties (45).

Post-Breakup Unwanted Pursuit: A Refined Analysis of the Role of Romantic Relationship Characteristics

“…Some researchers handled the skewed distributions by classifying participants into two or three categories (e.g., Patton et al 2010;Roberts 2002Roberts , 2005 resulting in the loss of meaningful variance of the continuous dependent variable. Other researchers applied linear regression analyses on the skewed distribution, but needed to drop highly skewed subscales from the analyses (e.g., Dutton-Greene 2004) or reduce violations of the normality assumption (e.g., by removing persons who reported no UPBs or transforming the skewed dependent variable; Dutton and Winstead 2006).…”

“…These relationships are typically characterized by verbal, psychological, physical, or sexual abuse (Coleman 1997;Langhinrichsen-Rohling et al 2000;Roberts 2005;Wigman et al 2008;Williams and Frieze 2005), control and denigration (Davis et al 2000;Dye and Davis 2003;Roberts 2005), anger, jealousy, suspiciousness, and possessiveness (Dutton-Greene 2004;Langhinrichsen-Rohling et al 2000;Roberts 2002;Tassy and Winstead 2010;Wigman et al 2008).…”

Unwanted Pursuit Behavior After Breakup: Occurrence, Risk Factors, and Gender Differences

“…Finally, research on individual perpetrator characteristics found that ex-intimate stalkers likely have a history of criminal convictions and mental health problems (Roberts, 2002). Cluster B personality disorders or traits, especially borderline traits, have been found to distinguish stalkers and pursuers from control groups (Lewis et al, 2001;Spitzberg & Veksler, 2007).…”

Persistence of Attempts to Reconcile a Terminated Romantic Relationship: A Partial Test of Relational Goal Pursuit Theory

“…Persistence is manifested in both the frequency and intensity of relationship pursuit behavior. Thus persistence varies in degrees (Cupach & Spitzberg, 2004;Davis et al, 2000;Haugaard & Seri, 2003;Langhinrichsen-Rohling et al, 2000;Roberts, 2005), ranging from mild (e.g., repeated calls, messages, visits, and gifts) to extreme (e.g., surveillance, threats, verbal abuse, and physical violence). Although persistence can be successful insofar as the former partner is eventually convinced or even coerced to reconcile the relationship, it more typically prolongs the unpleasantness of termination for both the rejected and rejecting parties (Baumeister et al, 1993).…”