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Relational Resilience: Intimate and Romantic Relationship Experiences of Women with Serious Mental Illness

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 February 2019

Lauren Mizock ,
Kat La Mar ,
Lynne DeMartini  and
Janette Stringer
Lauren Mizock*
Affiliation:
Fielding Graduate University, Santa Barbara, California, USA
Kat La Mar
Affiliation:
Fielding Graduate University, Santa Barbara, California, USA
Lynne DeMartini
Affiliation:
Fielding Graduate University, Santa Barbara, California, USA
Janette Stringer
Affiliation:
Fielding Graduate University, Santa Barbara, California, USA
*
Address for correspondence: Lauren Mizock, Fielding Graduate University, 2020 De La Vina St, Santa Barbara, CA 93105, USA. Email: lmizock@fielding.edu
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Abstract

The present qualitative study was conducted with 20 women with serious mental illness (SMI) in order to better characterise their romantic and intimate relationship experiences. Grounded theory methodology directed the identification of intimate and romantic relationships themes for women with SMI, which included the following: function matching, pathologising problems, symptom interference, dating deal breakers, sexual foreclosure, dating deprioritised, and relational resilience strategies. Clinical implications and future research directions are discussed.

Keywords

womenserious mental illnessmental healthrelationshipsromanticintimate
Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Relationships Research , Volume 10 , 2019 , e5
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s) 2019 

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