In the 36th installment of Relationship Matters, the podcast of the Journal of Social and Personal Relationships produced by Dr. Bjarne Holmes of Champlain College, Dr. Claudia Brumbaugh (Queens College, City University of New York) discusses her recent research on rebound relationships.
Typically, people define a rebound relationship as a relationship that is initiated shortly after a breakup, before the individual has fully ‘gotten over’ the prior relationship.
Dr. Brumbaugh and her collaborator, Dr. Chris Fraley (University of Illinois), conducted two studies of people who had recently gone through a break up. Specifically, they looked at how people were doing post-breakup, how they felt about their ex-partners, and whether or not they were seeing someone new.
Though many assume that rebound relationships are a bad idea, participants in rebound relationships felt more confident about their desirability as a partner and showed signs of letting go of any feelings they had for their ex-partners.
Why might this be the case? And do these findings suggest that rebound relationships may be more beneficial than typically believed?
For the full story, listen to the podcast here.
Check out the original article here (courtesy of SAGE publications).
Brumbaugh, C. C., & Fraley, R. C. (in press). Too fast, too soon? An empirical investigation into rebound relationships. Journal of Social and Personal Relationships.