Negative family-of-origin experiences: are they associated with perpetrating unwanted pursuit behaviors?

Parental divorce, history of parental relationship separation, perceptions of interparental conflict, and witnessing parental violence were retrospectively assessed in a sample of 213 college students from several regions in the United States, all of whom had suffered an unwanted break-up of an important romantic relationship. This study investigated whether these family-of-origin experiences were associated with perpetrating unwanted pursuit behaviors after the relationship break-up. Results indicated that male participants who had experienced either parental divorce or separation perpetrated more severe unwanted pursuit behavior than males who had not experienced parental divorce or separation or females from either divorced, separated, or intact families. For females, severe unwanted pursuit behavior perpetration was correlated with threatening and intense parental arguments. These findings suggest that a variety of types of negative parental relationship behavior may be risk factors for perpetrating severe unwanted pursuit behaviors. The gender-specificity and implications of these findings are discussed.