Contact with an Ex-partner is Associated with Psychological Distress after Marital Separation.

ABSTRACT: This study examined the association between naturalistically-observed in-person contact with one's ex-partner and separation-related psychological distress (SRPD). 122 recently-separated adults were assessed using the Electronically Activated Recorder (Mehl, 2017) on three occasions across five months. The association between in-person contact with one's ex-partner, as a between-person variable, and concurrent SRPD was not reliably different from zero, nor was the time-varying effect of in-person contact. However, more frequent in-person contact with one's ex-partner predicted higher SRPD two months later, above and beyond the variance accounted for by concurrent in-person contact, demographic, relationship, and attachment factors. Follow-up analyses yielded that this effect was only prese

SUBMITTER: O'Hara KL 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7709927 | biostudies-literature | 2020 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature