Complicated grief and depression after the dissolution of romantic relationships

Abstract

It may be assumed that the dissolution of romantic relationships leads to complicated grief, which later on leads to depressive symptoms. The main objective of this research is to investigate the relationship between break-ups, complicated grief, and depression. It can be hypothesized that the dissolution of a romantic relationship is associated with complicated grief, which may be the mediator of depressive symptoms. Research has shown that individuals going through a break-up experience complicated grief and that, in turn, is linked to negative outcomes, such as suicidality. However, other studies have shown that the end of a romantic relationship may positively impact an individual, instead. A total of 146 individuals (72 males and 74 females) from the Lebanese population agreed to participate in this study. The measurements used were comprised of a demographic questionnaire that was developed for this study, an Inventory of Complicated Grief (ICG; Prigerson et al., 1995; Reimer, 2019) to assess symptoms of grief after a loss of a romantic relationship, and Beck’s Depression Inventory (BDI; Beck et al., 1961) to measure characteristic attitudes and symptoms of depression. Correlational and Mediation analyses were performed between the three variables. The dissolution of a romantic relationship appeared to be significant to complicated grief (r = -.238; p < .01), and complicated grief was shown to be significant to depression (r = .554; p < .001). As for break-ups and depression, there were no significance reported. However, when we used complicated grief as a mediator between break-ups and depression, the model showed an indirect significance (p < .01). The findings showed that there was no direct link between romantic break-ups and depression, however, when complicated grief was acting a mediator, there was an indirect effect between the variables. These findings provide insight into what the Lebanese population experiences post break-up.