Because of the numerous ways to operationalize power, much of the literature about power in relationships has not been cohesive. However, to understand when and how perceptions of power are associated with behaviors in relationships, multiple conceptualizations of power must be considered along with personal characteristics. The present study tested how perceptions of general power and situational power interact to predict negative behaviors during relationship conflict for people of various attachment orientations. Additionally, we tested if effects remained stable or changed over the early years of marriage. We found that low general and low situational influence did interact to predict less hostility than different combinations of influence, which did not support my hypothesis. Largely, we did not find systematic support that attachment style was a relevant moderator in considering influence and negative conflict behavior, with one interaction between general influence, situational influence, gender, and avoidance as an exception. Finally, we found that the proposed effects did not differ over time.

The purpose of this study was to determine if parent adolescent attachment is correlated with adolescent hope and shame two years later with parent psychological control in the year in between as a mediator. Data at wave four, five, and six for 308 families from the Flourishing Families Project were used. In previous studies attachment has been shown to be important in adolescent development. This study found that the adolescent's perception of the relationship is negatively correlated with shame and positively correlated with hope in the adolescent. Additionally the adolescent's perception of their relationship with both mother and father was correlated with mother and father psychological control, and mother and father psychological control was correlated with adolescent shame and hope. Psychological control was a significant mediator between the adolescent perception of the relationship with both parents and adolescent shame and hope.

Much of the literature regarding relational aggression in romantic relationships has focused on the behaviors and outcomes of the actor and victim independently. Additionally, the relationships studied usually cover emerging adult samples, and rarely expand to long-term committed relationships, such as cohabiting or married couples. In this paper I sought to determine if relationally aggressive behaviors in long-term committed relationships over time resulted as a function of individual predictors (e.g. neuroticism), or as a process of couple interactions (e.g. couple attachment); and how these traits directly and indirectly (through relational aggression) influenced relationship quality. An Actor Partner Independence Model (APIM) was run using 1,558 individuals from the RELATE study. Anxious attachment was the strongest predictor of relational aggression. For both men and women, participating in relationally aggressive behaviors had a direct influence on their own relationship quality. Anxiously attached partners were more likely to be relationally aggressive and to have more relationally aggressive partners. Female, as well as male, relational aggression partially mediated the link between male and female anxious attachment, and female relationship quality. For men, only their own relational aggression mediated the link between male and female anxious attachment, and their own relationship quality.

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21st century schools have great expectations of generating individuals with refined knowledge, skills and values to make a positive impact on human existence. Paradoxically, the report of the Annual National Assessments paints a bleak picture of the quality of learner attainment in South African primary schools where basic skills in communication, problem solving and analytical thinking should take root. Fortunately, however, sporadic pockets of successful schools do exist. There appears to be an inextricable link between leadership and learner outputs, and learner attainment seems to fall squarely on the shoulders of the school principal. The purpose of this study was to investigate and unravel the leadership practices of principals of successful public primary school as they led in accountability- and standards-driven environments. The framework that guided this study was the four core leadership practices: setting direction; developing people; aligning the organisation for success; and leading and managing the instructional programme. Valuable insights and a rich understanding of how successful primary school principals create, nurture and sustain the conditions and processes necessary for high levels of learner attainment and instructional improvement were generated via an inductive, qualitative study. Three successful schools in the Uthukela district of KwaZulu-Natal formed the purposive sample and data was gathered from each principal via direct interviews. Two focus group interviews and participant observation triangulated the data. The findings revealed that in setting the direction for their school, principals focused on aligning and motivating their people towards a common vision that strongly correlated to personal aspirations. Principals engaged their staff in continuous professional development and were particular about the working milieus of teachers. They ensured that relationships were characterised by open communication, collaboration, democratic decision making and trust. Leadership was distributed and instruction was effectively led by principals working in close consultation with their management team. Due to extensive monitoring and evaluation, the status quo was often challenged and the curriculum adapted. The successful school principals adopted an inside-out approach to their leadership practices, and they resorted to match-fit and hierarchical breakdown. The study recommends that all principals should align their personal vision with the organisational vision, teach human resource management to all line managers, and establish and foster professional learning communities. / Thesis (PhD)--University of Pretoria, 2014. / tm2015 / Education Management and Policy Studies / PhD / Unrestricted

This study sought to examine what gaps existed in practice through the perspectives of correctional social workers in terms of helping incarcerated mother–infant dyads bond. Additionally, it examined whether a prison nursery was viewed as a possible option within a smaller correctional facility. Theories used to guide this study included attachment theory and separation-individuation theory, which align with the research questions that sought to explore gaps in services, supports that could be established, and program feasibility. Action research, using an anonymous online survey, resulted in N = 6 social work participants who worked as prison social workers in the northeast region of the United States. Data were coded using thematic analysis to explore latent and semantic themes. Conclusions drawn from the dataset include the restrictive nature of the prison setting being a barrier to promoting attachment. An increase in parenting classes, substance use programming, and mental health treatment was seen as beneficial for supporting attachment. Promoting childhood normalcy and having access to nature and play things was seen as integral to the development of a prison nursery program. A prison nursery was seen as feasible within a smaller correctional facility in the northeast. Potential positive social change resulting from these findings include development of specific interventions to maintain mother–infant bonding in small departments of correction.

The relationship between female undergraduate students’ (n = 151) reports of parental emotion coaching in childhood and their reports of emotion regulation, romantic attachment, and romantic intimacy in young adulthood was investigated. The female undergraduate students completed additional questionnaires about their mood, personality characteristics, and relationship satisfaction in young adulthood, and parental warmth in childhood. Remembered supportive emotion coaching (comprised of Emotion-Focused Reactions, Problem-Focused Reactions and Expressive Encouragement) was significantly and positively correlated with healthier emotion regulation (reappraisal), and was significantly and negatively correlated with less healthy emotion regulation (suppression). Remembered unsupportive emotion coaching (comprised of Minimizing Reactions, Punitive Reactions, and Distress Reactions) was significantly and positively correlated with romantic avoidant and anxious attachment. Romantic intimacy was not significantly correlated with remembered supportive or unsupportive emotion coaching. Emotion regulation mediated the relationship between remembered emotion coaching and avoidant and anxious attachment, but not romantic intimacy. Emotion regulation continued to mediate the relationship between remembered emotion coaching and avoidant attachment after mood, personality characteristics, relationship satisfaction, and parental warmth were entered into the model as covariates, but emotion regulation did not continue to mediate the relationship after covariates were entered into the model when anxious attachment was the predicted variable.

Family attachment is viewed as the bonds between children, adolescents (in the case of this study) and significant others in their household with whom they form close emotional bonds in the process of growing up. This mixed method study explores to what extent the quality of attachment relationships can contribute to the kinds of relationship in families that would promote attachment. Such attachment is regarded as being associated with greater adolescent well-being. The experience of family attachment from the perspective of adolescents and how their perception of their attachment to their families impacts on their sense of well-being is thus explored in this study. The theoretical framework I chose to investigate the qualities of family relationships is that of Neufeld who describes family relationships in terms of six dimensions, namely (1) proximity, (2) sameness, (3) belonging, (4) significance, (5) feeling loved and (6) being known. These qualities (Neufeld and Maté, 2006) of attachment ascend from the simple to the more complex and were used to develop a new instrument for measuring the extent to which adolescents report specific qualities to be present in their family relationships. Attachment is a developmental process and knowledge about these six dimensions increases our understanding of healthy family attachment relationships. The participants consisted of urban South African Grade 11 and 12 students between the ages of 16 and 18 who attend the two participating government schools in Pretoria. Convenient multi-stage random sampling was used and permission was obtained from the Gauteng Department of Education, as well as informed consent from the parents and participants. Participation was voluntary and the participants could withdraw from the research at any point. An exploratory sequential design was used in which the qualitative findings in the first phase built towards the quantitative phase, which included the development of a new scale in the second phase (Creswell, 2009). The first qualitative phase of the study was exploratory in nature and data were collected from two participants through semi-structured interviews. The purpose of these interviews was to explore the participants’ experience of the quality of their family relationships. The analysis of the qualitative data entailed the organisation of the data according to themes that identify a specific dimension of Neufeld’s attachment model (Neufeld and Maté, 2006). The information gained in the first phase assisted in designing and implementing the second quantitative phase. The aim of the second quantitative phase was to create an initial item pool, first with a small pilot study (n=26) and then with a larger sample (n=208) in the main study. The initial item pool was subjected to revision by a panel of experts and 72 items were piloted. Internal consistency of the items was established by using Cronbach’s alpha coefficient, and construct-related validity was investigated by using convergent validity of the scale. Principal Component Analysis (PCA) with promax rotation was applied in the main study for data reduction and for refining the constructs (DeVellis, 2012; Fabrigar and Wegener, 2012; Jolliffe, 2002; Pallant, 2011). To determine the number of factors that should be retained, multiple extraction criteria were used before making the decision. First, the Kaiser criterion (eigenvalue >1 rule), which suggested retaining factors that were above the eigenvalue of 1, was considered. Another criterion was Cattell’s criterion (scree plot) in conjunction with the eigenvalues where the scree plot indicated which factors accounted for most of the variances and thus a larger eigenvalue. A five-factor model seemed to fit the data and was subsequently regarded as the final Family Attachment Scale (FAS). Labelling of the factors followed and reflected the theoretical and conceptual intention of the present study (Fabrigar et al., 2012; Pallant, 2011). A General Linear Model Procedure was followed to examine the extent to which the dependent variable Trait Well-Being Total Score (TWBTS) could determine subjective well-being (DeVellis, 2012; Kaplan et al., 2009). The Trait Well Being Inventory (TWBI) (Dalbert, 1992) was used for validation purposes as it measures ‘well-being’. In this way construct-related evidence was obtained for the validity of the FAS since family attachment is theoretically associated with greater well-being. The findings of the FAS indicated that only Love and Knowledge displayed significant correlational patterns with subjective well-being, as originally expected. Although the quality of family relationships changes with adolescence, the relationship between family members remains of the utmost importance. It was interesting that Belonging did not emerge as a significant factor; this may be because adolescence is a period of development in which young people underestimate their sense of belonging as they seek autonomy. Adolescents seek to develop their own identity and ‘belonging’ to a family may not necessarily be a priority. I wish to emphasise that the results drawn from the study do not represent the broader population and are relevant only to adolescents in urban South Africa with intact families. The present study contributes to the existing body of literature on the theory of attachment by providing empirical support for Neufeld’s attachment theory (Neufeld et al., 2006), which is described in popular literature. A valid and reliable Family Attachment Scale (FAS) was also developed. Practical contributions of the present study include a better understanding of adolescents’ attachment relationships which could aid professionals such as Educational Psychologists, Social Workers and Counsellors when working with adolescents. / Thesis (PhD)--University of Pretoria, 2017. / Educational Psychology / PhD / Unrestricted

There are millions of adult male offenders currently involved with U.S. corrections system, many of which report a wide range of mental health difficulties and a history of traumatic experiences. Mental health and trauma-related difficulties are important considerations in the treatment and rehabilitation of adult male offenders. The relationship between adverse childhood experiences (ACEs), attachment style, and PTSD symptoms were studied in a sample of adult male participants in a court-ordered diversion program. The sample consisted of 59 men, ranging in age from 19 to 68-years-old, who endorsed a history of at least one prior arrest. Data were collected during a psychoeducational group-therapy class offered at a post-arrest diversion program. Primary study measures included the use of the ACEs questionnaire, Attachment Style Questionnaire (ASQ-40), and the Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Checklist-5 (PCL-5). A priori hypotheses proposed, 1) there is a significant correlation among ACEs, ASQ subscales, and PTSD symptoms, and 2) insecure attachment subscales mediate the relationship between ACEs and PTSD symptoms. Correlation, regression, and mediation analyses evaluated the relationship among ACEs, ASQ subscales and PCL-5 scores. As predicted, ACEs and PTSD symptoms were negatively correlated with secure attachment and positively correlated with insecure attachment. Also as predicted, insecure attachment style (i.e. discomfort from closeness) mediated the relationship between ACEs and PTSD symptoms. Results suggested that the confidence and discomfort with closeness attachment scales shared a significant relationship between and ACEs and PTSD symptoms. These findings suggest that the relationship between ACEs, attachment style, and PTSD symptomatology can further inform conceptualizations and treatments oriented toward improving outcomes for adult male offenders and successful reintegration into their communities.

Våra anknytningsstilar påverkas redan från barndomen utav våra relationer. Studien undersökte personers olika anknytningsstilar som förekommer och kön i förhållande till Big Five modellens fem personlighetsdimensioner. Denna studie är genomförd med fem tvåvägs variansanalyser för oberoende mätningar. Beprövade mätinstrument användes i studien, vilka är Attachment Style Questionnarie och Shafer’s personality scale. Anknytningsstil och kön användes som oberoende variabler och Big five dimensionerna användes som en beroende variabel i studien. I resultatet framkom det ingen skillnad mellan kön på dimensionerna i Big Five. Det existerade dock skillnader mellan de tre anknytningsstilarna i dimensionerna extraversion, vänlighet samt neuroticism i Big Five. Endast samvetsgrannhet kunde påvisa en statistisk signifikant interaktion mellan anknytningsstil och kön i förhållande till Big Five. Slutsatserna är att studiens resultat stämmer överens till stor del med tidigare forskning.