Factors Associated with the Occurrence and Cessation of Relational Intrusion

This study investigated factors associated with the occurrence and cessation of pursuit after the termination of a romantic relationship. Participants were 384 undergraduate and graduate students at Old Dominion University and the University of Rhode Island. Questionnaires were completed by 219 female students (110 who had difficulty letting go of a relationship, 109 whose partner had difficulty letting go) and 161 male students (94 who had difficulty letting go, 67 whose partner had difficulty). Participants completed measures assessing attachment style, emotional distress at the time of break up, alternatives to the relationship, and relationship satisfaction. Those who had pursued a former partner completed questionnaires that asked about their pursuit behaviors and target's responses. Participants who had been pursued by a former partner completed questionnaires about the types of behaviors the pursuer engaged in and how they responded to the pursuit. Support was not found for the hypotheses that participants with a preoccupied attachment style would report more relational pursuit than those with secure, fearful, or dismissing styles and those with a secure attachment style would report less pursuit than those with fearful, dismissing, and preoccupied styles. Attachment anxiety, however, was predictive of relational pursuit as was emotional distress. For pursuers, greater levels of distress over the break up and fewer alternatives to the relationship were associated with a higher degree of relational intrusion. Gender differences in experiences and responses, effectiveness of response strategies for ending the pursuit, and specific events or factors that lcd to cessation of pursuit were investigated.