The purpose of this research program was to examine how attachment anxiety and rejection interact to influence intentions and attitudes toward having unprotected sexual intercourse. I hypothesized that women who were high in attachment anxiety would hold weaker intentions to use a condom and would have more negative attitudes toward condoms than would women who were low in attachment anxiety. Moreover, I predicted that these expected main effects of anxiety on intentions and attitudes would interact with rejection, such that the association between high anxiety and both weak intentions and negative attitudes would be exacerbated among women that were exposed to a rejection-salient condition. I explored the interaction of interest in the context of specific romantic partner rejection (Study One) as well as general social rejection from peers (Study Two). In Study One, I manipulated potential partner rejection and found that attachment anxiety and rejection condition interacted to influence intentions to engage in unprotected sex. In the rejection condition, attachment anxiety was marginally positively related to intentions whereas in the non-rejection condition, attachment anxiety was marginally negatively related to intentions. Upon further investigation of this same interaction, I found that among women who were high in attachment anxiety, rejection condition did not significantly impact intention ratings. However, among women who were low in attachment anxiety, those who were rejected reported significantly weaker intentions to engage in unprotected sex than those who were not rejected. Attitudes toward condoms were not influenced by the interaction between attachment anxiety and rejection condition. In Study Two, I manipulated general social rejection and found that the intentions results from Study One were not replicated, as general social rejection and attachment anxiety did not interact to influence intentions to engage in unprotected sex. Once again, attitudes toward condoms were not influenced by this interaction. Explanations for the findings of Study One and Study Two are explored and implications of both studies’ findings for the literature on condom use and for sexual health promotion are discussed. / Thesis (Master, Psychology) -- Queen's University, 2009-08-18 11:55:36.243

The purpose of this research was to examine how attachment anxiety and rejection-salience interacted to influence condom use intentions and beliefs. I manipulated rejection-salience specific to a sexual encounter (Study 1) and rejection-salience in general (Studies 2 and 3). I hypothesized that among women who were high in anxiety, those in the rejection-salient condition would report riskier sexual tendencies related to condom use compared to those in the control condition. I did not expect rejection-salience to influence the sexual tendencies of women who were low in anxiety. In Study 1, I manipulated potential partner rejection and found that attachment anxiety, attachment avoidance, and rejection-salience interacted to influence intentions to engage in unprotected sex. As expected, among women who were high in anxiety and low in avoidance, those in the rejection condition reported stronger intentions to have unprotected sex than those in the control condition. Unexpectedly, the same was true for women who were low in anxiety and high in avoidance. In Study 2, I manipulated general rejection-salience and asked women to indicate how many weeks into a relationship would be appropriate before switching from having protected to unprotected sex. Consistent with the results of Study 1, among women who were high in anxiety, those in the rejection-salience condition reported less time before switching compared to those in the control condition, demonstrating more risky sexual tendencies. In Study 3, I manipulated general rejection-salience and asked women to report how many weeks into a relationship unprotected intercourse should occur. Inconsistent with my predictions, as well as from the results of Studies 1 and 2, among women who were high in anxiety and low in avoidance, those in the rejection-salience condition reported that unprotected sex belonged later in a relationship timeline compared to those in the control condition. Study 4 explored how the exposure to positive relationship thoughts may act to buffer the influence of rejection-salience on risky sexual tendencies among highly anxious women. Some preliminary support for this hypothesis was found. Future research directions and implications for the literature on condom use and for sexual health promotion are discussed. / Thesis (Ph.D, Psychology) -- Queen's University, 2012-06-28 18:11:21.488

Prior research has shown that attachment anxiety is related to two contradictory conflict styles: submission and dominance. In a series of three studies, I clarified this research by introducing the role of attachment-related threat in moderating submissive versus dominant tendencies of highly anxious individuals in conflict with romantic partners. I propose that rejection-related threats activate the attachment system which motivates anxious individuals to engage in submission to restore psychological proximity to their partners. Alternatively, when threat levels are low, I propose that anxious individuals exhibit dominance towards their partners in attempt to seek validation. In Study One, I replicated and extended previous research by demonstrating the relationship between attachment anxiety and the submissive conflict style. The relationship between attachment anxiety and the dominant conflict style was moderated by gender such that this relationship was stronger for women than men. In Study Two, women read a vignette outlining a hypothetical scenario where their preferences and goals conflicted with those of their partner. This vignette contained a rejection component whereby their partner responded in either a rejecting or reassuring manner. Women high in anxiety reported being somewhat more likely to defer to the wishes of a rejecting versus non-rejecting romantic partner, relative to those low in attachment anxiety. Study Three was a daily diary study, examining the relationship between attachment anxiety and the nature of real life conflicts with romantic partners over 10 days. Individuals high in attachment anxiety reported lower quality interactions and more conflicts with their partners relative to low anxiety individuals. When engaged in conflict, anxious individuals expressed greater levels of hostility towards their partners, and left their conflicts less resolved relative to low anxiety individuals. Further, partner anger moderated the relationship between attachment anxiety and submissive versus dominant tendencies. Individuals high in attachment anxiety and low in avoidance were somewhat more likely to submit to their partners when their partners expressed high levels of partner anger. On the other hand, when their partners displayed low levels of anger, individuals high in attachment anxiety reported doing somewhat more of the arguing relative to low anxiety individuals. Future directions and clinical implications are discussed. / Thesis (Master, Psychology) -- Queen's University, 2012-08-06 10:39:27.373

The purpose of this study was to contribute to the existing body of research that focuses on strategies to promote positive behaviors in middle years students using a case study approach that examined the restitution processes and school attachment strategies implemented in an urban middle years school. Analysis of the data revealed that implementation of a restitution program and a focus on school attachment practices at Lakeview Middle Years School (pseudonym) had a positive impact on student behaviors.

All forms of child abuse are associated with a variety of short- and long-term negative effects. In particular, adult victims of child abuse have been known to experience more insecure forms of attachment to significant others in adulthood (McCarthy & Taylor, 1999; Muller, Lemieux, & Sicoli, 2001). It was hypothesized that particular forms of child abuse would be associated with particular forms of insecure attachment in adulthood and that adult attachment style would act as a mediator between child abuse history and negative outcomes. Five hundred fifty-two female and 294 male university student completed questionnaires on their child abuse history, adult attachment style, self-esteem, current psychological symptoms and a number of demographic variables. Regression analyses, ANCOVA’s and bootstrapping mediation analyses were completed. Physical abuse was associated with attachment avoidance and psychological maltreatment was associated with attachment anxiety. Some support was also found for associations between neglect and physical abuse with attachment anxiety. Sexual abuse was not associated with either attachment avoidance or attachment anxiety. Social support, as a control variable, was also found to be an important predictor of attachment avoidance and attachment anxiety. While it was hypothesized that there would be differences between high and low severity sexual and physical abuse on adult attachment anxiety, no statistically significant differences were found. Both attachment avoidance and attachment anxiety were found to partially mediate the relationships between child abuse and psychological symptoms and child abuse and self-esteem. These findings provide more detailed information regarding the importance of adult attachment in the area of child abuse and implications for the support and treatment of child abuse victims. One’s child abuse history can provide important information regarding one’s attachment tendencies in adulthood impacting important adult relationships including the therapy relationship.

This research thesis is a small exploration of attachment theory in child welfare practice. The researcher investigated the extent of knowledge that child protection workers had of attachment theory and the extent to which they integrated attachment theory into child welfare practice. A purposive non-probability sample was used to recruit General Authority child welfare workers in Manitoba. Five workers participated in the exploratory qualitative descriptive research study. Participants responded to a demographic survey investigating their education, training, years of service and the participants provided a brief description of attachment theory. Participants also reviewed vignettes and responded to semi-structured interview scripts eliciting practice information related to the vignettes. The data elicited was analyzed using content analysis. The degree of exposure to attachment theory, opportunities to engage in theory informed practice, and external and internal agency pressures were observed to influence theory integration into child welfare practice. Participants acknowledged the attachment theory concepts of transmission of parenting behaviours and attachment strategies through relationships. Participants considered the therapeutic capacity of relational and attachment focused interventions to bring about change to maladaptive parenting behaviours.

Research has shown that adult attachment mediates the relationship between child sexual abuse and mental health functioning in adulthood. However, there is great variability across these projects as to the operational definition of attachment. Hence, the primary goal of this project was to clarify the literature by providing a comprehensive definition of attachment which would allow for the translation of research findings into a treatment application for child sexual abuse. The second goal of this project was to update the child sexual abuse and attachment research bases by providing a complete definition of mental health outcome. That is, rather than defining mental health solely as the absence of psychopathology, it was defined both as the absence of psychopathology and the presence of psychological wellbeing. From these goals it was hypothesized that child sexual abuse would be positively related to adult psychopathology and negatively related to adult psychological wellbeing. The relationships were expected to be mediated by both adult attachment anxiety and attachment avoidance. To test the hypotheses a total of 421 men and women undergraduate students were sampled and completed numerous questionnaires. The analyses revealed a significant positive relationship between child sexual abuse and adult psychopathology and this relationship was found to be completely mediated by adult attachment anxiety and partially mediated by attachment avoidance. Contrary to prediction, the inverse relationship found between child sexual abuse and psychological wellbeing was not statistically significant. Unfortunately, all supportive findings had to be nullified because the size of the relationship between child sexual abuse and psychopathology was exceptionally small and post-hoc corrections were unable to increase the size of the effect. A considerable investigation was undertaken to identify potential sources of this apparent error and the relationships between the attachment and complete mental health variables were explored further. The most impressive finding of the exploratory analyses was that nearly one quarter of the variation of complete mental health was accounted for by adult attachment. Taken together, although this project did not unfold as predicted, it did partially satisfy its secondary goal and hence it remains an interesting and viable contribution to the literature.

The purpose of this study was to contribute to the existing body of research that focuses on strategies to promote positive behaviors in middle years students using a case study approach that examined the restitution processes and school attachment strategies implemented in an urban middle years school. Analysis of the data revealed that implementation of a restitution program and a focus on school attachment practices at Lakeview Middle Years School (pseudonym) had a positive impact on student behaviors.

Research has shown that adult attachment mediates the relationship between child sexual abuse and mental health functioning in adulthood. However, there is great variability across these projects as to the operational definition of attachment. Hence, the primary goal of this project was to clarify the literature by providing a comprehensive definition of attachment which would allow for the translation of research findings into a treatment application for child sexual abuse. The second goal of this project was to update the child sexual abuse and attachment research bases by providing a complete definition of mental health outcome. That is, rather than defining mental health solely as the absence of psychopathology, it was defined both as the absence of psychopathology and the presence of psychological wellbeing. From these goals it was hypothesized that child sexual abuse would be positively related to adult psychopathology and negatively related to adult psychological wellbeing. The relationships were expected to be mediated by both adult attachment anxiety and attachment avoidance. To test the hypotheses a total of 421 men and women undergraduate students were sampled and completed numerous questionnaires. The analyses revealed a significant positive relationship between child sexual abuse and adult psychopathology and this relationship was found to be completely mediated by adult attachment anxiety and partially mediated by attachment avoidance. Contrary to prediction, the inverse relationship found between child sexual abuse and psychological wellbeing was not statistically significant. Unfortunately, all supportive findings had to be nullified because the size of the relationship between child sexual abuse and psychopathology was exceptionally small and post-hoc corrections were unable to increase the size of the effect. A considerable investigation was undertaken to identify potential sources of this apparent error and the relationships between the attachment and complete mental health variables were explored further. The most impressive finding of the exploratory analyses was that nearly one quarter of the variation of complete mental health was accounted for by adult attachment. Taken together, although this project did not unfold as predicted, it did partially satisfy its secondary goal and hence it remains an interesting and viable contribution to the literature.

All forms of child abuse are associated with a variety of short- and long-term negative effects. In particular, adult victims of child abuse have been known to experience more insecure forms of attachment to significant others in adulthood (McCarthy & Taylor, 1999; Muller, Lemieux, & Sicoli, 2001). It was hypothesized that particular forms of child abuse would be associated with particular forms of insecure attachment in adulthood and that adult attachment style would act as a mediator between child abuse history and negative outcomes. Five hundred fifty-two female and 294 male university student completed questionnaires on their child abuse history, adult attachment style, self-esteem, current psychological symptoms and a number of demographic variables. Regression analyses, ANCOVA’s and bootstrapping mediation analyses were completed. Physical abuse was associated with attachment avoidance and psychological maltreatment was associated with attachment anxiety. Some support was also found for associations between neglect and physical abuse with attachment anxiety. Sexual abuse was not associated with either attachment avoidance or attachment anxiety. Social support, as a control variable, was also found to be an important predictor of attachment avoidance and attachment anxiety. While it was hypothesized that there would be differences between high and low severity sexual and physical abuse on adult attachment anxiety, no statistically significant differences were found. Both attachment avoidance and attachment anxiety were found to partially mediate the relationships between child abuse and psychological symptoms and child abuse and self-esteem. These findings provide more detailed information regarding the importance of adult attachment in the area of child abuse and implications for the support and treatment of child abuse victims. One’s child abuse history can provide important information regarding one’s attachment tendencies in adulthood impacting important adult relationships including the therapy relationship.