Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Non-Marital Romantic Relationship Commitment And Leave Behavior: The Mediating Role Of Dissolution Consideration, Laura E Vanderdrift, Christopher Agnew, Juan E. Wilson

Department of Psychological Sciences Faculty Publications

Two studies investigated the process by which individuals in non-marital romantic relationships characterized by low commitment move toward enacting leave behaviors. Predictions based on the behavioral, goal, and implementation intention literatures were tested using a measure of dissolution consideration developed for this research. Dissolution consideration assesses how salient relationship termination is for an individual while one’s relationship is intact. Study 1 developed and validated a measure of dissolution consideration and Study 2 was a longitudinal test of the utility of dissolution consideration in predicting the enactment of leave behaviors. Results indicated that dissolution consideration mediates the association between commitment and …