Integration and expansion of qualitative analyses of relationship dissolution through ghosting

Ghosting is a romantic relationship breakup strategy that includes severing communication between partners. However, inconsistencies in existing conceptualizations of ghosting indicate a lack of agreement between scholars studying this phenomenon. Consequently, a need exists to establish an empirically derived definition and to explore the process of, motivations behind and consequences of ghosting. The current authors and another research team, LeFebvre et al. (2019), independently conducted qualitative studies that sought to achieve these aims. We used a bottom-up approach to compare our thematic analyses to those of LeFebvre et al. We identified replicable themes and discrepancies with their work from which we propose a revised definition of ghosting that integrates findings from each research team.