2025 Theses Doctoral

Beyond the Trade-Off: Uncovering the Diverse Outcomes of Co-Rumination Across Social, Affective, Physiological, and Behavioral Domains

DiGiovanni, Ana McMahon

Our lives are full of challenges that we attempt to make sense of alongside close others. Whether we are seeking intimacy, trying to feel better, or attempting to come up with a solution to a problem, the conversations we have with others regarding problems both big and small influence the way we think, feel, and act.

This dissertation examines the complexities of co-ruminative conversations – that is, conversations whereby individuals go over the same topic over and over again, consider causes and consequences of the problem, and focus on negative feelings.

Chapter 1 discusses how although person-specific increases in co-rumination correspond to greater anxiety, depression, and closeness with friends on average, meaningful individual differences emerge, whereby not all individuals experience the same effects. Utilizing real-time, lab-based dyadic conversation tasks and psychophysiological assessments, Chapter 2 exhibits how co-ruminative conversations result in physiological synchrony of the sympathetic nervous system. Finally, Chapter 3 investigates co-rumination about social and political issues surrounding the 2024 US presidential election, using a 4-wave repeated-measures study and an intensive 28-day daily diary study.

Findings demonstrated that within-person increases in co-rumination about social and political issues are associated with more political action, both at the weekly and daily level. Together, these three chapters highlight novel insights that can be gained when a more holistic and expansive view of co-rumination is paired with advanced quantitative methods.