Dysfunctional cognitive-affective patterns and media narrative: The role of telenovelas in the normalization of romantic suffering in Latin American women
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Telenovelas have operated for decades as agents of emotional socialization in Latin America, perpetuating representations of romantic love in which suffering, jealousy, and sacrifice are presented as inherent components of an authentic relationship. This article proposes and develops an exploratory theoretical construct termed the telenovela pattern, defined as the set of dysfunctional cognitive-affective beliefs about romantic love internalized through sustained exposure to media narratives that normalize pain as the price of affection. The construct is operationally differentiated from emotional dependence (Castello, 2005) and romantic love myths (Ferrer Perez et al., 2010) by incorporating the specific etiological factor of Latin American television media narrative. The study used a mixed-methods approach and a non-experimental, cross-sectional design with the exploratory objective of examining the relationship between consumption of romantic fiction, dysfunctional beliefs about love, and derived affective behaviors. An exploratory survey was administered to a non-probabilistic sample of 200 adult Latin American women. Preliminary results show a high prevalence of beliefs associating love with pain (58%), tolerance for dysfunctional relationships (46%), and subsequent emotional blockages (62%). It is concluded that these findings, while exploratory and not generalizable, justify the development of longitudinal studies with representative samples and psychometric validation of the instrument. Practical implications point toward emotional education and cognitive-behavioral therapy as evidence-based interventions for the deconstruction of these affective patterns.
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