Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 2008. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Texas Christian University, 2009. / Title from dissertation title page (viewed Oct. 30, 2009). Includes abstract. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Washington, 2000. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 95-112).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 2004. / Supervisors: Cindy Carlson and Nancy Hazen-Swann. Vita. Includes bibliographical references. Available also from UMI company.

Thesis (M.A.)--Carleton University, 1996. / Also available in electronic format on the Internet.

The purpose of this research was to utilise attachment theory in understanding the experience of bereavement in childhood. Research objectives were addressed by using a mixed method design. Study One explored how experience of bereavement in childhood relates to current attachment style in adulthood. This was a qualitative interview-based study utilising thematic analysis and a quantitative assessment of attachment styles. Twenty-four participants were employed. The established Experience in Close Relationships (ECR) questionnaire was used. The results through the thematic analysis indicated that people with different attachment styles provide different narratives about their childhood bereavement. This study provides evidence that this was so. Study Two was a co-relational study employing 121 participants who experienced loss of caregiver in childhood. Four established questionnaires were used: Inventory of Complicated Grief (ICG; Prigerson et al., 1995), Experience in Close Relationships Questionnaire-Revised (ECR; Fraley, Waller, & Brennan, 2000), Separation Anxiety Symptom Inventory (SASI; Silove, Manicavasagar, O’Connell, Blaszczynski, Wagner, & Henry, 1993) and Parental Bonding Instrument (PBI; Parker, Tupling, & Brown, 1979). The results showed that complicated grief was related to parental care and overprotection, separation anxiety, and adult attachment style. Anxious attachment style fully mediated the effects of parental bonding on complicated grief. Study Three was a quantitative co-relational study to compare two groups of parents (with and without a bereaved child) on child behavioural differences and links between child behavioural problems and parental characteristics. Two hundred and forty participants were employed: 139 parents of children with bereavement experience and 101 without bereavement experience. Five established questionnaires were used: Child Stress Questionnaire (CSQ), Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ), The Parenting Scale (PS), Inventory of Complicated Grief (ICG), and Experience in Close Relationships Questionnaire-Revised (ECR-R). The results showed that child problems were closely associated to parental qualities. It is proposed that this research can make a contribution towards utilising attachment theory in understanding the experience of bereavement in children.

In this thesis, semi structured interviews and observations have been performed in order to offer and acknowledge pedagogical strategies and in which situations these become visible. Attachment patterns and foremost how educators relate and handle these patterns to reach an affectionate behavior has been the aim for this study. Six educators within the Early Childhood Education were interviewed. The observations were placed at three different preschools, monitoring children between the ages of three and six. The focus however, has been on the preschool teachers. The observation was narrated back to the educators, using the method stimulated recall, encouraging the teachers to reflect around their motives. In this study, we have shown the importance of making the silent knowledge that the educators possess more conscious. Through the observations some patterns where attachment is of importance has been made visible in this thesis and among these are adopting other perspectives.We have also acknowledged the importance of educators being flexible, having a close relation to the children and being available for them.

The broad issue of cooping with stress and pressure as well as the attachment theory and its connection with social and emotional development of children of the certain age is found it the theoretical part of our work. Behaviour disturbances and their impact of further social and emocional development of the child are described too. Connection between these disturbances, the attachment theory and acquiering of cooping strategie is also explained. The Children{\crq}s diagnostic institution is shortly described. In the practical part of our work we can learnt about the research that has been done with the children from the Diagnostic Institut. This research brings more clarification of validity of BISK metod in conditions of the Czech Republic. The resutls of the research discover possible relations between the attachment dynamic of the child{\crq}s family and the aspects of emotional attachment of the child with his parents as well as cooping starategies resulting from them. The results of the research acknowledge truth that the children coming from unfuncional families use rather avoiding strategies of behavior if facing stress. We clarify that the children are under influence of their family environment {--} nonsupporting parents thier behaviour. Our work can bring contributions for furhter scientific research and also for work in the field of prevention and therapy.

O objetivo desse estudo in vitro foi analisar a durabilidade, retenção e tensão gerada nos implantes de overdenture retidas por sistema bola/O\'ring ou barra/clipe, associados ou não a mini-implantes na região posterior da mandíbula. Foram utilizados implantes anteriores cone-Morse (3,75 x 11 mm) e mini-implantes de corpo único (2 x 10 mm) e os grupos divididos em (n=12): G2O: overdenture sobre 2 implantes com bola/O´rings; G1B: overdenture sobre 2 implantes com barra/clipe; G4O: overdenture sobre 2 implantes com bola/O´rings e 2 mini-implantes na região posterior; G1B2O: overdenture sobre 2 implantes com barra/clipe e 2 mini-implantes na região posterior. Para avaliação qualitativa das áreas de compressão e/ou tração nos modelos em poliuretano, foi realizado o método de correlação de imagens digitais, com carregamento oclusal (300 N) e pontual (250 N) com captura em vista frontal e lateral dos modelos experimentais. Foi realizado ensaio de fadiga acelerada progressiva com cargas de 80 N, 140 N, 200 N, 260 N, 320 N e 380 N, frequência de 5Hz, totalizando 120.000 ciclos. Para avaliação da retenção os modelos foram submetidos a ensaio de tração previamente a termociclagem (Tempo 1), após 200 N (Tempo 2) e após 380 N (Tempo 3) e a força de retenção foi registradas em triplicata e a média obtida em cada tempo. A análise da durabilidade dos componentes retentivos foi realizada após os ensaios de tração nos tempos determinados por microscopia óptica. As imagens da aplicação de carga oclusal, mostraram que as tensões nos grupos 1B e 1B2O foram semelhantes, nos grupos 2O e 4O apresentaram tensões de tração na região anterior, porém no grupo 4O houve melhor distribuição por toda área analisada. Na aplicação de carga pontual, todos os modelos apresentaram tensões de compressão na região posterior e de tração na anterior, porém com maior intensidade nos modelos 2O e 4O, e menor intensidade nos modelos 1B e 1B2O. Nas análises sobre a retenção dos componentes, não houve diferença significativa (p < 0,05) entre os grupos 1B-1B2O, porém houve diferença significativa entre os grupos 2O-4O, notando maior força retentiva no grupo 4O. As comparações entre os grupos, 1B-2O e 1B2O-4O houve diferença significativa, sendo que os grupos com sistema barra/clipe obtiveram maior retenção que os grupos com O´rings. Nas imagens microscópicas não houve diferença significativa na estrutura interna dos O´rings, porém houve diferença significativa nos clipes. Conclui-se que a durabilidade, retenção e distribuição de tensão não se altera com a colocação de mini-implantes posteriores em overdentures com sistema retentivo barra/clipe. Com sistema retentivo bola/O\'ring a instalação de mini-implantes aumentou a força de retenção e favoreceu a distribuição das tensões, reduzindo a alavanca para posterior. / The purpose of this in vitro study was to analyze the durability, retention and strength caused for implants-retained overdentures by ball/O-ring system or bar/clip, associated or not mini-implants in the posterior region of the mandible. Anterior Morse taper connection implants (3.75 x 11 mm) and single-body mini-implants (2 x 10 mm) were used and the groups divided to (n=12): G2O: implants-retained overdentures 2 implants with ball/O-rings ; G1B: implants-retained overdentures 2 bar/clip implants; G4O: implants-retained overdentures 2 implants with ball/O-rings and 2 mini-implants in the posterior region ; G1B2O: implants-retained overdentures 2 implants with bar/clip and 2 mini-implants in the posterior region. For the qualitative evaluation of compression and/or traction areas in polyurethane models, a digital image correlation method (DIC) with occlusal (300 N) and punctual (250 N) loading was applied with frontal and lateral views of the experimental models. An accelerated progressive fatigue test with loads of 80 N, 140 N, 200 N, 260 N, 320 N and 380 N, frequency of 5 Hz, completing120,000 cycles. In order to evaluate the retention force, the models were submitted to traction force, previously to thermocycling (Time 1) after 200 N (Time 2) and posteriorly 380 N (Time 3), being the retention force recorded in triplicate. The durability analysis, by optic microscopy, of the retentive components was performed after the traction tests at the determined times. The application images of the occlusal load, showed that the stress in groups 1B and 1B2O were similar, in groups 2O and 4O presented stress in the anterior region, but in the 4O group, there was better distribution throughout the analyzed area. In the application of punctual loading, all the models presented compression tensions in the posterior region and traction in the anterior one, but with greater intensity in the 2O and 4O models, and lower intensity in the 1B and 1B2O models. In the retention analyzes of the components, there was no significant difference (p <0.05) between groups 1B-1B2O, but there was a significant difference between groups 2O-4O, noting a higher retentive force in the 4O group. The comparisons between the groups, 1B-2O and 1B2O-4O showed a significant difference, and the groups with bar/clip systems obtained higher retention than the groups with O-rings. In the microscopic images, there was no significant difference in the O-rings internal structure, but there was a significant difference in the clips images. It was concluded that the durability, retention and stress distribution do not change with the placement of posterior mini-implants in overdentures with retentive bar/clip system. With retentive system ball/O-ring the installation of mini-implants increased the retention force and favored much the distribution of the stress, thus reducing the forefoot leverage to the posterior part of the prosthesis.

Emotionally Focused Couple Therapy (EFT; Johnson, 2004) addresses relationship distress by facilitating the development of new patterns of interaction between partners. These new patterns of interaction are based on partners' vulnerable acknowledgement and expression of attachment needs. Partners' engagement in these new patterns of interaction is thought to improve their relationship-specific attachment bond. Although previous studies have shown EFT to result in excellent relationship satisfaction outcomes (Johnson, Hunsley, Greenberg & Schindler, 1999), research had yet clearly to demonstrate if and how EFT facilitates increases in partners' relationship-specific models attachment security over the course of therapy. To address this research gap, the current study employed Hierarchical Linear Modelling (HLM; Singer & Willet, 2003) to investigate the pattern of change in couples' (n=32) self-reported relationship satisfaction and relationship-specific attachment over the course of EFT. Couples reported significant linear increases in their relationship satisfaction and significant linear decreases in their relationship-specific attachment avoidance over the course of therapy. Couples who completed the blamer-softening therapeutic change event (n=16) demonstrated significant linear decreases in their relationship-specific attachment anxiety after completing this event. Decreases in relationship-specific attachment anxiety predicted increases in couples' relationship satisfaction over the course of therapy. Couples also demonstrated significant increases in the security of their pre-post-therapy relationship-specific attachment behaviour, as coded Secure Base Scoring System (Crowell, Treboux, Gao, Fyffe, Pan & Waters, 2002). The current study also used HLM (Singer & Willet, 2003) to examine how the completion of blamer-softening impacted softened couples' relationship-specific attachment anxiety, and whether the completion of blamer-softening had a similar impact on softened couples' relationship-specific attachment avoidance and relationship satisfaction. Softened couples reported an immediate increase in relationship satisfaction and immediate decrease relationship-specific attachment avoidance at the softening session. Further, softened couples' post-softening decreases in relationship-specific attachment anxiety were initially preceded by an increase at the softening session. These results provided an understanding of how EFT leads to increases in couples' relationship-specific attachment security. These results provide support for the use of attachment theory in the treatment of relationship distress, and also provide an illustration of how attachment can shift over the course of a therapeutic intervention.