Do men or women find break-ups harder? We’ve all seen the scene in movies and TV a thousand times – the one where the broken hearted woman sobs into a tub of ice cream on the couch, and laments over the fact that now she might just have cats as her companions for the rest of her life. But, is that the whole truth? Do men find break-ups just as hard? Or even worse? A new study had some surprising results…
A new study has found relationship break-ups are harder for men than women. Yip, a lot of us secretly thought this might be the case, and now there is proof!
The results have been published in a paper called Romantic Relationships Matter More to Men than to Women authored by Iris V Wahring, Jeffry A Simpson, and Paul AM Van Lange. The authors sought to analyse traditional beliefs about romantic relationships, including that women are emotionally dependent on their partners and men are emotionally reserved.
They found men rely more on their romantic partners for emotional support and intimacy than women do, explaining that men focus more on their relationships than maintaining a broader network of support via family and friends. This leaves men more dependent on their relationships for emotionally and psychological support, meaning that if and when they end, the loss is of more significance. Yikes.
Interestingly, the study also found that men are motivated to find a partner and more likely to believe in the concept of “love at first sight”. They also reported men falling in love more often than women.
But while they’re often the instigator of starting a relationship, they’re much less likely to be the one to initiate a break-up with women – likely due to their dependence on the emotional support.
The study found that approximately 70 percent of divorces are initiated by women and women are also more likely to end non-marital relationships as well.
And while a break-up can often be bittersweet for women – a combination of sadness, and some hopefully optimism for the future, that just isn’t the case for men. They’re less likely to view breakups as opportunities for growth and self-discovery, plus the distress men experience after the end of a serious relationship is also more than women, according to the study authors.
After a breakup, men are more likely to report feelings of loneliness, sadness, and reduced life satisfaction compared to women.
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