Abstract
The purpose of this paper was to investigate undergraduates' feelings and behaviors in and after the dissolution of romantic relationships from the view of sex differences and the intimacy of romantic relationships. The participants were 239 undergraduates (116 males and 123 females), who have dated for a while and experienced the dissolution of romantic relationships. Found were persuasion/negotiation, passive acceptance, and avoidance/escape as coping behaviors, and distress as feelngs in the dissolution. Further, regret/grief and attachment were found as behavioral responses after the dissolution. The more intimate their romantic relationships were, the more distress in the dissolution, the more regret/grief and attachment after the dissolution were. The more intimate the romantic relationships were, the more persuasion/negotiation behaviors were adopted. Only females adopted less avoidance/escape behaviors as the romantic relationships became more intimate. Irrespective of the intimacy of romantic relationships, males adopted more passive acceptance behaviors than females. At the most intimate level, females adopted more persuasion/negotiation behaviors and less avoidance/escape behaviors than males.
