What’s left after a romantic breakup? The vicissitudes of closure

The dissolution of a romantic relationship is a psychologically significant event that often engenders long-lasting emotional responses. In an effort to gain a better understanding of this experience, we inbestigated how individuals reflect on what they were “left with” following the breakup of a significant romantic relationship and how these relate to their sense of closure. A thematic analysis of responses (N = 859) yield six themes: General Personal Growth, Development in the Realm of Intimate Relationships, Growth in Relational Competence, Positive experiences, Mixed Experiences, Negative experiences with Lessons Learned, and Negative Experiences Without Growth. Being in a new relationship, having initiated the breakup, length of time since termination of the relationship, and being female were all positively associated with closure whereas attachment anxiety, continued contact-seeking, younger age at relationship start, and being single at the time of the survey were associated with reduced closure. FInally we discuss the clinical implications for heling individuals process unresolved aspects of breakups.