Romantic breakup and college student adjustment: Attachment dimensions, patterns of grief, and sex

The present study examined the normative life event of college student romantic breakup using a loss and grief approach. In an online survey of 356 college students who reported experiencing recent breakups, I examined associations between sex, attachment dimensions, and patterns of grief with college student adjustment. Participants completed (a) a demographic/background questionnaire, (b) the Experience in Close Relationships questionnaire, (c) the Grief Pattern Inventory, and (d) the Student Adaptation to College Questionnaire. Hierarchical multiple regressions tested the hypotheses that sex (i.e., being a woman) would be positively associated with an emotional intuitive grieving pattern and negatively associated with a cognitive instrumental grieving pattern. I also examined if the Avoidance dimension would be positively associated with instrumental grieving and the Anxiety dimension would be positively associated with the intuitive grieving pattern. Results revealed that being a woman was negatively associated with instrumental grief. The Avoidance dimension was positively associated with instrumental grief, and the Anxiety dimension was positively associated with intuitive grief. In addition, I used simultaneous multiple regression to test the hypotheses that the Avoidance and Anxiety dimensions would be negatively associated with overall college student adjustment and to explore potential associations between sex and grief pattern with college student adjustment. Findings revealed that the Avoidance dimension, Anxiety dimension, and intuitive grief were all negatively associated with overall college student adjustment. Finally, I grouped participants based on grief pattern and performed a 2 (i.e., men vs. women) X 3 (i.e., intuitive, blended, or instrumental) Multivariate Analysis of Covariance (MANCOVA) including the covariates of time passed since breakup as well as love and commitment in the prior romantic relationship with the four dependent variables being the subscales of college student adjustment (i.e., Academic Adjustment, Social Adjustment, Personal-Emotional Adjustment, & Institutional Attachment). I used this analysis to examine the hypotheses that instrumental men would score higher on the college student adjustment subscales than intuitive men, and intuitive women would score higher on the college student adjustment subscales than instrumental women. No interaction between sex and grief pattern emerged. However, women scored significantly higher than men on Academic Adjustment. The intuitive grief group scored significantly lower than the blended and instrumental grief groups on the college student adjustment domains of Social Adjustment, Personal-Emotional Adjustment, and Institutional Attachment. Counseling psychologists can use this knowledge from the study findings to tailor their support and facilitate strategies that will be the most helpful for students to achieve optimal college student adjustment after a romantic breakup. Limitations of the study were in the areas of sample, measurement, and research design