PERTANIKA JOURNAL OF SOCIAL SCIENCES AND HUMANITIES

This paper explains the breakup experiences of romantic relationships, coping strategies, and post-traumatic growth (PTG) among vicenarian adults. It employed a qualitative-based research design using a phenomenological method. Snowball and purposive sampling methods were used to select seven participants with a background of romantic relationship breakup experience within two years. Semi-structured interviews were conducted to collect participant data, and data were analyzed using a thematic analysis procedure. This study found that romantic relationships included understanding of love, utmost happiness in love, and need in love. In contrast, breakups indicated decision-making, emotional impact, and self-blame. Besides, the result also reported that the coping methods involved emotional engagement and acceptance state (duration taken to overcome the emotions). After a romantic relationship breakup, self-growth was found more in personal strength, close relationships, new possibilities, spiritual development, and greater appreciation of life as PTG implications. The findings concluded that breakup-experienced participants coped through the grief process and enhanced their self-growth. This study helped to create awareness among society to view their grief as a growth-oriented process.

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