Spinning Your Wheels: Psychological Overinvolvement and Actigraphy-Assessed Sleep Efficiency Following Marital Separation

Background: This study investigated the ways in which adults reflect on their psychological experiences amid a recent marital separation and how these patterns of thought, manifest in language, are associated with self-reported negative affect and actigraphy-assessed sleep disturbance. Methods: In a sample of 138 recently separated adults assessed three times over five months, we examined within- and between-person associations among psychological overinvolvement (operationalized using verbal immediacy derived as a function of the language participants used to discuss their relationship history and divorce experience), continued attachment to an ex-partner, negative affect, and sleep efficiency. Results: The association between psychological overinvolvement and negative affect operated at the within-person level, whereas the associations between psychological overinvolvement and sleep disturbance, as well as negative affect and sleep disturbance, operated at the between-person level. Conclusions: These findings shed light on the intraindividual processes that may explain why some people are more susceptible to poor outcomes after separation/divorce than others. Our findings suggest that individuals who express their divorce-related thoughts and feelings in a psychologically overinvolved manner may be at greatest risk for sleep disturbances after marital separation/divorce.National Institute of Mental Health12 month embargo; published: 13 June 2022This item from the UA Faculty Publications collection is made available by the University of Arizona with support from the University of Arizona Libraries. If you have questions, please contact us at repository@u.library.arizona.edu