Accounts of relational dissolution: A comparison of marital and non‐marital relationships

Abstract

Verbal accounts are the principal means by which individuals personally cope with spoiled relationships and socially manage relationship dissolution. The aims of this study are to illuminate the process of relational dissolution through analysis of personal accounts and to identify similarities and differences in the disengaging process for marriages versus dating relationships. Personal accounts of the dissolution of 50 marital and 50 pre‐marital relationships were analyzed in terms of four key features: (1) the problems and relational stresses that motivate one or both members to dissolve the relationship, (2) the attributions of responsibility for these problems, (3) the attempts to repair or manage the dissolving relationship, and (4) the factors that impede termination of the relationship. Findings indicate that the structural and affective enmeshment of marital couples lend to their disengagement accounts a characteristic complexity not paralleled in the accounts of couples who dissolved their relationship prior to marriage.