Portal de Periódicos da CAPES

Negative Emotions and Behaviors Are Markers of Breakup Distress

2013; Project Innovation Austin; Volume: 47; Issue: 3 Linguagem: Inglês

2691-3887

Tiffany Field, Miguel Diego, Martha Peláez, Osvelia Deeds, Jeannette Delgado,

Migration, Health and Trauma

Method: University students who experienced a recent romantic breakup were given several self-report measures and were then divided into high versus low breakup distress groups. Results: The high breakup distress versus the low breakup distress groups had higher scores on negative emotions scales including depression, anxiety and anger and reported more negative behaviors including poor academic performance, drinking and disorganized behavior. They also reported feeling less forgiveness, although the two groups were equivalent on posttraumatic growth and positive activities including reading, playing music, watching T.V., and internet use. Surprisingly, also, the two groups (high and low distress following breakup) were similar on personality traits including optimism, extraversion and spirituality. Keywords: breakup distress, university students, negative emotions, depression, anxiety ********** Romantic breakup was one of the most commonly nominated worst events in a large phone survey of traumatic events, and a prospective risk factor for the onset of major depression disorder (Monroe, Rohde, Seeley & Lewinsohn, 1999). In one study, over 40% of those experiencing breakups also experienced clinical depression, with some 12% having moderate to severe depression (Mearns, 1991). Anxiety is often comorbid with depression, and anxiety was significantly associated with relationship breakup in a survey of more than 5000 internet respondents (Davis, Shaver & Vernon, 2003). Breakups are notably frequent in university students and are expected to cause negative mood states and a kind of breakup distress that has also been noted for adult women (Najib, Lorberbaum, Kose, Bohning & George, 2004). Some researchers have argued that to understand the differences between the recovery patterns of individuals who do well and those who do poorly requires an examination of changes in daily moods following a romantic breakup (Sbarra, 2006). In the Sbarra (2006) study, greater levels of anger were noted, and sadness decreased the probability of recovering from anger. In contrast to this focus on distress factors, very few studies have investigated the possibility of positive emotions following breakup including forgiveness and posttraumatic growth (Tashiro & Frazier, 2003). Forgiveness is considered a replacement of negative, unforgiving emotions with other positive-oriented emotions (Worthington, Witvliet, Pietrini, & Miller, 2007). In a review of six studies, forgiveness was negatively correlated with anger, anxiety and depression and positively related to satisfaction with life (Thompson, Snyder, Hoffman, Michael, Rasmussen, Billings, et al, 2005). Forgiveness was, in turn, significantly associated with less alcohol use, lower blood pressure and heart rate. None of these findings resulted from decreased levels of anger, suggesting that the benefits of forgiveness extend beyond the dissipation of anger. Forgiveness was also correlated with agreeableness, extraversion and empathy (Worthington et al, 2005). Posttraumatic growth is another positive feature that may attenuate breakup distress. Although breakup distress is usually associated with negative emotions and negative activities, only a few studies have examined the possibility that positive life changes might follow a relationship breakup. In a recent paper entitled I'll never be in a relationship like that again: Personal growth following romantic relationship breakups, a body of research was reviewed on stress-related growth or on improvement in psychological functioning following breakups (Tashiro & Frazier, 2003). Posttraumatic growth has ranged in incidence from approximately 30% to 80% (Linley & Joseph, 2004). Examples of post-traumatic growth have included improved relationships with others, greater empathy, greater personal strength and a renewed appreciation of life (Calhoun & Tedeschi, 2006). …