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ABSTRACT
A sample of 192 university students who had experienced a recent breakup of a romantic relationship was divided into high versus low score groups based on the Breakup Distress Scale. Females had higher Breakup Distress Scale scores. The group who had high Breakup Distress Scale scores reported having less time since the breakup occurred, did not initiate the breakup, reported that the breakup was sudden and unexpected, felt rejected and betrayed, and had not yet found a new relationship. They also scored higher on the Intrusive Thoughts Scale, on the Difficulty Controlling Intrusive Thoughts Scale, on The Sleep Disturbance Scale, and on the depression (CES-D) and anxiety scales (STAI). In a regression analysis, the most important predictors of the Breakup Distress scores were the depression score (CES-D), the feeling of being betrayed by the breakup, shorter time since the breakup occurred, and a higher rating of the relationship prior to the breakup. This explained as much as 37% of the variance, suggesting that these factors are important contributors to relationship breakup distress.
Breakup distress in university students may take the form of complicated grief, an intense and prolonged period of grief following a loss (Horowitz, Siegel, Holen, Bonanno, Milbrath, & Stinson, 1997). Typically complicated grief is associated with a death, although many of the complicated grief symptoms are similar to those of heartbreak following a romantic relationship breakup. The criteria for complicated grief have been defined as intensive intrusive thoughts, pangs of severe emotion, distressing yearnings, feeling excessively alone and empty, unusual sleep disturbances, and loss of interest in personal activities (Horowitz et al., 1997). The term "complicated" reflects the unresolved complications of normal functioning as assessed by the Inventory of Complicated Grief (Prigerson, Maciejewski, Reynolds, Bierhals, Newsom, Fasiczka, et al., 1995).
In a study that measured both uncomplicated grief (based on the Texas Revised Inventory of Grief by Faschingbauer, 1981) and complicated grief (based on the Inventory of Complicated Grief by Prigerson et al., 1985), complicated grief scores were more related to anxiety, depression, social functioning, and general health than symptoms of uncomplicated grief (Boelen & van den Bout, 2008). In another study on complicated grief, 55% of the sample were depressed (Simon, Shear, Thompson, Zalta, Perlman, Reynolds, et al., 2007). Those...