Coping with Break-Ups: Rebound Relationships and Gender Socialization

• Main Authors: Cassie Shimek, Richard Bello
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: MDPI AG 2014-01-01
• Series: Social Sciences
• Subjects: rebound relationship; emotional attachment; Lee’s love styles; emotional distress; gender; social support; gender socialization; parental investment theory
• Online Access: http://www.mdpi.com/2076-0760/3/1/24

When serious romantic relationships are terminated, partners are faced with convoluted and complex challenges of detachment from their previous partner, negative feelings about the overall situation, and the need to move forward in life. When faced with this relational upheaval, some individuals employ and find relief in superficial or noncommittal rebound relationships, which act as a means for coping with the loss of the previous relationship and the severed emotional attachment to an ex-partner, but which are under studied by empirical researchers. In a study of 201 participants, men were predicted and found to be more likely to enter rebound relationships in the aftermath of a relational termination based on lower levels of social support, more emotional attachment to an ex-partner, and displaying the ludus (or game playing) love style. In addition to the measures of these variables, gender socialization and parental investment theory provide further support for the study’s claims. In sum, rebound relationships were employed by men as a distraction from their feelings of emotional attachment for their ex-partner, but also as a source of support and due to inherent ludic characteristics.