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Cited by 188Mental Health via WritingGrief, Bereavement, and Mental HealthIdentity, Memory, and Therapy

Word use in emotional narratives about failed romantic relationships and subsequent mental health

Boals, Adriel, Klein, Kitty·2005·Journal of Language and Social Psychology
DOI 10.1177/0261927x05278386
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Abstract

The authors investigated how word use in a stressful narrative is related to levels of grief and intrusive and avoidant thinking associated with the stressful event. A total of 218 college students who had experienced the breakup of a romantic relationship during the preceding 12 months produced a written narrative of the relationship and subsequent breakup using an expressive writing procedure. Participants used more negative emotion, cause, sensory, and first person singular words when describing the breakup in comparison to describing the period when they were still dating. In addition, greater avoidance of the breakup predicted greater use of negative emotion, first person singular and third-person pronouns, and less use of cognitive words. Conversely, levels of grief predicted less use of causal words and greater use of first person singular pronouns. The authors argue that use of cognitive words reflect an active search for meaning and understanding of the stressful event.

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Crossref · 10.1177/0261927x05278386

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Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?

  • Use of cognitive words in trauma narratives might reflect the elaboration process.

    “Use of cognitive words in trauma narratives might reflect this elaboration process (15, 16).”

    From Early Linguistic Markers of Trauma-Specific Processing Predict Post-trauma Adjustment (2018) · cites this paper as [15]

  • The finding that less use of cognition words is associated with increased PTSD symptoms is in accord with cognitive theories of PTSD and the proposed beneficial nature of elaborative cognitive processing during trauma.

    “The use of less cognition words in those with increased PTSD symptoms is in accord with cognitive theories of PTSD and the proposed beneficial nature of elaborative cognitive processing during trauma (13, 14) and complements earlier findings of increased cognition words predicting fewer distress symptoms following emotional events (15, 25).”

    From Early Linguistic Markers of Trauma-Specific Processing Predict Post-trauma Adjustment (2018) · cites this paper as [15]

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Related

Authors
Boals, A., & Klein, K.
Affiliations
  • Duke University (US)
  • North Carolina State University (US)
ORCID
Boals, Adriel
Venue
Journal of Language and Social Psychology
Publisher
SAGE Publications
Published
2005-09
Volume
24
Issue
3
Pages
252-268
ISSN
  • 0261-927X (ISSN-L)
  • 1552-6526
DOI
10.1177/0261927x05278386
OpenAlex
W1975790234
Cited by
188
References
42
Citations by year
2026: 5 · 2025: 6 · 2024: 8 · 2023: 5 · 2022: 10 · 2021: 8 · 2020: 15 · 2019: 16 · 2018: 10 · 2017: 12 · 2016: 23 · 2015: 16 · 2014: 10 · 2013: 6 · 2012: 16
FWCI
1.34
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
closed
Licence
journals.sagepub.com/page/policies/text-and-data-mining-license (tdm)
Locations
Journal of Language and Social Psychology (publishedVersion)
Topics
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Mental Health via Writing
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Grief, Bereavement, and Mental Health
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Developmental and Educational Psychology › Identity, Memory, and Therapy
Keywords
romantic breakup, grief, avoidance, expressive writing, word usage, negative emotion words, first-person singular pronouns, third-person pronouns, search for meaning, mental health, university students

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