Queering Post-Dissolution Friendships: Exploring Relational Understandings in Sapphic Communities
| dc.contributor.author | Stewart, Aria | |
| dc.date.accessioned | 2025-05-08T14:25:23Z | |
| dc.date.available | 2025-05-08T14:25:23Z | |
| dc.date.issued | 2025 | |
| dc.description.abstract | Existing heteronormative social norms surrounding breakups hold that partners should avoid contact and not retain any connection with a former partner. This is not always the case, particularly within queer communities, where post-dissolution friendships are more common. Sapphic communities, or communities of women and women-aligned nonbinary people attracted to others with similar gender identities, are particularly thought to engage in this practice of remaining close with former partners. This study explored experiences and understandings of these relationships within the sapphic community, as well as the norms surrounding these relationships, through a qualitative online survey. Participants were sixteen sapphic individuals, aged 18-41 (M =21.88), with experience in these relationships. Reflexive thematic analysis was used to construct themes from the dataset. Seven themes were organized into two overarching thematic categories, influence of relational scripts and navigating outside relational scripts. This research has implications for relationship intervention programs, such that clinicians working with sapphic couples may need to be aware of the norms within this community to provide appropriate support. This study describes a novel and understudied framework for understanding these relationships and their significance, and illustrates the importance of challenging assumptions in the study of relationships. | |
| dc.description.reviewstatus | Reviewed | |
| dc.description.scholarlevel | Undergraduate | |
| dc.description.sponsorship | Jamie Cassels Undergraduate Research Awards (JCURA) | |
| dc.identifier.uri | https://hdl.handle.net/1828/22195 | |
| dc.publisher | University Of Victoria | |
| dc.subject | post-dissolution friendships | |
| dc.subject | LGBTQ relationships | |
| dc.subject | sapphic | |
| dc.subject | breakup | |
| dc.subject | friendships | |
| dc.subject | queer relationships | |
| dc.title | Queering Post-Dissolution Friendships: Exploring Relational Understandings in Sapphic Communities | |
| dc.type | Poster |