Congratulations to Abbie Joseph ’21 for the successful defense of her Honors in the Major Project! Her project was titled “Cyberstalking Behaviors After the Use of Ghosting”. Her supervisor, Dr. Darcey N. Powell was joined by committee members, Dr. Osterman and Dr. Berntson, to oversee her defense.
Project Abstract:
The purpose of the current study was to examine the differences in cyberstalking behaviors after the dissolution of a romantic interaction based on the dissolution strategy used (i.e., ghosting or explicit reasoning). Participants included emerging adults between the ages of 18 and 29 (N = 240) who had a romantic interaction end. A survey was used to collect information regarding participants’ most recent relationship dissolution, their experiences with ghosting and cyberstalking, their engagement in cyberstalking behaviors towards an ex-partner and the ex-partner’s new partner, their social media app usage, and their relationships with their ex-partner. Analyses revealed that participants whose most recent romantic interaction ended via ghosting did not engage in significantly more cyberstalking behaviors than participants whose most recent romantic interaction ended via explicit reasoning. There were no significant differences in the length of engagement in cyberstalking behaviors after the breakup between participants whose relationship ended through ghosting and participants whose relationship ended explicitly. There were no significant differences in engagement of cyberstalking behaviors between participants who initiated the ghosting and participants who were ghosted. Participants who were ghosted engaged in cyberstalking behaviors to seek out information about their ex-partner and the ex-partner’s new partner. The findings of the current study provide information on how the dissolution strategy is associated with post-dissolutional cyberstalking behaviors.
Congratulations again to Abbie Joseph on a successful defense and we look forward to seeing all you accomplish in the future!
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