Breadcrumbing by a dating partner, perceived social support, and paranoia

Breadcrumbing is an abusive dating behavior that involves sending non-comital signals to another person and feigning interest in them, despite having no intention of taking the relationship forward. Exposure to breadcrumbing has been found to be harmful for mental health but there is no research into its relationship with more severe psychopathology, such as paranoid ideation. This study examines the relationship between exposure to breadcrumbing and paranoid ideation through the mediation of perceived social support, while controlling for the effects of age and sex. An Advanced Mediation Generalized Linear Model was built based on cross-sectional correlational survey data from 544 participants in the United Kingdom. Exposure to breadcrumbing was indirectly associated with paranoid ideation through the mediation of perceived social support. Sex impacted perceived social support, with men reporting lower perceived social support. Age impacted paranoid ideation, with younger participants reporting higher paranoid ideation. The results suggest that more frequent exposure to breadcrumbing from current or past dating partners may result in a perception of lower social support from others which in turn increases the risk of paranoid ideation. Psychological interventions should focus on enabling clients to develop and retain connections with others to access social support in the face of breadcrumbing.