Objective
This brief exploratory study, guided by family systems theory, examined whether rumination mediated the relationship between adult children’s experience of triangulation (i.e., feeling caught) and well‐being after parental infidelity.
Results
On the basis of responses from 215 adult children whose parents engaged in infidelity, adult children’s well‐being and their feelings of being caught between parents was mediated by rumination. Moreover, the relationship between these variables was not conditional on whether adult children’s parents divorced or remained married after infidelity.
Implications
These findings provide an initial understanding of the impact of parental infidelity on adult children. Further, they suggest that future research should examine family discourses that promote or mitigate rumination because family interactions greatly influence offspring’s experiences with this transgression.