Doctor of Philosophy / School of Family Studies and Human Services / Amber V. Vennum / Belonging to groups has been found to lead to many positive outcomes, including acting as a buffer for maladaptive coping behaviors, in the lives of emerging adults. Less is known about how belonging may act as a protective factor to engaging in unhealthy behaviors, less is known in regards to how group coping norms of the groups emerging adults belong to impact the motivations for coping and subsequently coping mechanisms. Further, belonging is a necessary component to life; however, less is known about how emerging adults understand what it means to belong. This dissertation includes two studies focused on belonging in emerging adulthood. Both studies utilized participants recruited from Amazon Mechanical Turk (Mturk). In study 1, a quantitative study (N = 438) was conducted to further explore how group coping norms moderates the associations between group belonging and individual motives for coping. Additionally, coping behaviors were included to understand how belonging to groups is associated with coping motives and coping behaviors. Results from study 1 indicated that while belonging was not significantly predictive of motivations and functions of using specific behaviors, unhealthy group coping norms were positively predictive of motivations for and functions of behaviors for coping purposes. Moreover, the interaction term (belonging X unhealthy group norms) yielded one significant path indicating that belonging to groups may be protective of using sex to cope even when unhealthy group norms are present. Additionally, belonging was negatively associated with drug frequency and positively associated with healthy supportive and self-soothing coping. Further, several coping motives were positive predictors of both unhealthy and healthy coping behaviors. In study 2, a qualitative study (N = 422) using open-ended questions was conducted to hear from emerging adults about their experiences of belonging. A thematic analysis approach was used to code participant responses before categorization and identifying themes. Participant responses indicate that emerging adults belong to groups based on personal identity, religious and spiritual affiliations, life stage and circumstances, educational group associations, professional association, significant relationships, social change initiatives, shared interests and activities, online connections. Moreover, themes outlining what it means to belong to emerging adults include embraced, increased self-confidence, greater life meaning, experience of a safety net, commonalities among group members, relationship component to group belonging, and fitting in and conformity. Before belonging to groups, results indicate that becoming a member of the group is necessary. Reasons for joining groups, group membership through intentionality, formal group entrance process, group membership as a natural process, group membership through identity formation, and group membership in an online context are all components of joining groups for emerging adults. Participants described the process of belonging with the following themes: building investment and intimacy, messages of inclusion, developing connection and community, mutual support, positive feelings that foster belonging, and individual growth and development and the process of belonging. Finally, participants identified what they get from belonging to groups which included a sense of belonging, feeling included and a part of something, personal growth needs, emotional needs, communal needs, work needs, and giving back and volunteering needs. The findings of this qualitative study indicate a need to further understand the belonging phenomenon in emerging adults across many populations. Research, clinical, and practical implications are outlined and provided.

A pesquisa aborda teórica e clinicamente a cadeia associativa grupal e sua especificidade, quando se utiliza como mediador terapêutico o pictograma grupal. Ela tem como objetivo acrescentar e aprofundar o estudo já realizado, no qual o desenhar conjunto pode introduzir modalidades associativas específicas que articulam o discurso do sujeito e do grupo (Pezo, 2009). O trabalho com grupos instaura processos associativos distintos dos descritos pela psicanálise, no enquadre clássico, segundo Kaës (1994, 2005, 2008, 2010) devido à presença de vários sujeitos simultaneamente e aos efeitos da interdiscursividade. Com o conceito de cadeia associativa grupal, Kaës (1985) define a especificidade da associação livre, que junto com a transferência e a interpretação, permitem o conhecimento dos efeitos do inconsciente no grupo. As cadeias articulam processos inter-relacionados entre si, as associações do sujeito singular e as produzidas intersubjetivamente no grupo. Quando, para além da palavra, se inclui no grupo um mediador terapêutico, como o pictograma grupal, o processo associativo apresenta marcas específicas. Entre elas, uma cadeia associativa de: traço para desenho; de desenho para desenho; de desenho para palavra; de palavra para narrativa. No pictograma grupal, aspectos inusitados, impensados se incluem de maneira semelhante ao lapso de linguagem graças ao trabalho do pré-consciente, do desenhar conjunto e, fundamentalmente, aos efeitos da presença múltipla de sujeitos. A consulta terapêutica proposta por Winnicott para atender crianças reconhece o valor da utilização do método psicanalítico em um atendimento, sem por isso estar realizando uma psicanálise padrão. Esse modelo de consulta é estendido para o atendimento de grupo e família, com o uso do pictograma grupal, em situações pontuais. Propõe-se a utilidade do mediador no trabalho institucional com pacientes psicóticos, psicossomáticos, com tendência de passagem ao ato. Considera-se que o recurso do pictograma grupal, ainda pouco explorado no campo das práticas institucionais, pode ser um facilitador para enunciar aquilo que não pode ser nomeado ou representado simbolicamente devido ao medo, ou a mecanismos como a repressão, o recalque, a denegação, entre outros. As cadeias associativas grupais propiciadas pelo uso do pictograma grupal evidenciam que simultaneamente é possível elaborar e transformar o sujeito apropriando-se subjetivamente da experiência, as relações intersubjetivas e o grupo, graças ao trabalho associativo grupal. Utilizamos o pictograma, em consultas terapêuticas com grupos e com famílias, em um enquadre de dois a três encontros. Destacamos a relevância do pictograma grupal, em outros contextos como situações traumáticas individuais ou sociais / This research discusses, from a theoretical and clinical point of view, the group association chain and its specificity when one uses the group pictogram as therapeutic mediator. Its goal is to add to and deepen the study previously made, in which the collective drawing may introduce specific kinds of association that articulate the subjects and the groups speech (Pezo, 2009). Working with groups creates association processes different from the ones described by psychoanalysis in the classical model, according to Kaës (1994, 2005, 2008, 2010) due to the presence of various subjects simultaneously and to the effects of interdiscursivity. This concept developed by Kaës (1985) defines the specificity of free association which, together with transfer and interpretation, allows one to know the unconscious impact on a group. The chains articulate interrelated processes, the single subject associations and the ones inter-subjectively created by the group. When one includes a therapeutic mediator beyond the word, such as the group pictogram, the association process presents unique characteristics, among them an association chain from: trait to drawing; from drawing to drawing, from drawing to word and from word to narration. In the group pictogram unprecedented and unthought aspects are similarly included in the language slip thanks to the work of the preconscious, the drawing together and, basically, to the effects of the presence of multiple subjects. The therapeutic session proposed by Winnicott acknowledges the value of using the psychoanalytic method in a process, which does not mean that one is performing a standard psychoanalytic treatment. This session method is extended to the group and family treatment, using the group pictogram in punctual situations. Our proposal is to use a mediator for the institutional work with psychotic patients, tending to proceed to the act with psychosomatic traumas due to difficulty to communicate only orally. It is believed that the group pictogram resource, which is still little exploited in the institutional practices area, may facilitate the enunciation of something that cannot be named or symbolically represented due to fear or mechanisms such as suppression, repression and denegation, among others. The group association chains provided by the use of the group pictogram show that it is possible to develop and transform at the same time: the individual subjectively acquiring the experience, the intersubjective relationships and the group, thanks to the group association work and the effects of intersubjectivity and interdiscursivity. We have used the pictogram in therapeutic sessions with groups and families in a model of two or three sessions. We would like to point out the relevance of the group pictogram in other contexts such as individual or social traumatic situations

A pesquisa aborda teórica e clinicamente a cadeia associativa grupal e sua especificidade, quando se utiliza como mediador terapêutico o pictograma grupal. Ela tem como objetivo acrescentar e aprofundar o estudo já realizado, no qual o desenhar conjunto pode introduzir modalidades associativas específicas que articulam o discurso do sujeito e do grupo (Pezo, 2009). O trabalho com grupos instaura processos associativos distintos dos descritos pela psicanálise, no enquadre clássico, segundo Kaës (1994, 2005, 2008, 2010) devido à presença de vários sujeitos simultaneamente e aos efeitos da interdiscursividade. Com o conceito de cadeia associativa grupal, Kaës (1985) define a especificidade da associação livre, que junto com a transferência e a interpretação, permitem o conhecimento dos efeitos do inconsciente no grupo. As cadeias articulam processos inter-relacionados entre si, as associações do sujeito singular e as produzidas intersubjetivamente no grupo. Quando, para além da palavra, se inclui no grupo um mediador terapêutico, como o pictograma grupal, o processo associativo apresenta marcas específicas. Entre elas, uma cadeia associativa de: traço para desenho; de desenho para desenho; de desenho para palavra; de palavra para narrativa. No pictograma grupal, aspectos inusitados, impensados se incluem de maneira semelhante ao lapso de linguagem graças ao trabalho do pré-consciente, do desenhar conjunto e, fundamentalmente, aos efeitos da presença múltipla de sujeitos. A consulta terapêutica proposta por Winnicott para atender crianças reconhece o valor da utilização do método psicanalítico em um atendimento, sem por isso estar realizando uma psicanálise padrão. Esse modelo de consulta é estendido para o atendimento de grupo e família, com o uso do pictograma grupal, em situações pontuais. Propõe-se a utilidade do mediador no trabalho institucional com pacientes psicóticos, psicossomáticos, com tendência de passagem ao ato. Considera-se que o recurso do pictograma grupal, ainda pouco explorado no campo das práticas institucionais, pode ser um facilitador para enunciar aquilo que não pode ser nomeado ou representado simbolicamente devido ao medo, ou a mecanismos como a repressão, o recalque, a denegação, entre outros. As cadeias associativas grupais propiciadas pelo uso do pictograma grupal evidenciam que simultaneamente é possível elaborar e transformar o sujeito apropriando-se subjetivamente da experiência, as relações intersubjetivas e o grupo, graças ao trabalho associativo grupal. Utilizamos o pictograma, em consultas terapêuticas com grupos e com famílias, em um enquadre de dois a três encontros. Destacamos a relevância do pictograma grupal, em outros contextos como situações traumáticas individuais ou sociais / This research discusses, from a theoretical and clinical point of view, the group association chain and its specificity when one uses the group pictogram as therapeutic mediator. Its goal is to add to and deepen the study previously made, in which the collective drawing may introduce specific kinds of association that articulate the subjects and the groups speech (Pezo, 2009). Working with groups creates association processes different from the ones described by psychoanalysis in the classical model, according to Kaës (1994, 2005, 2008, 2010) due to the presence of various subjects simultaneously and to the effects of interdiscursivity. This concept developed by Kaës (1985) defines the specificity of free association which, together with transfer and interpretation, allows one to know the unconscious impact on a group. The chains articulate interrelated processes, the single subject associations and the ones inter-subjectively created by the group. When one includes a therapeutic mediator beyond the word, such as the group pictogram, the association process presents unique characteristics, among them an association chain from: trait to drawing; from drawing to drawing, from drawing to word and from word to narration. In the group pictogram unprecedented and unthought aspects are similarly included in the language slip thanks to the work of the preconscious, the drawing together and, basically, to the effects of the presence of multiple subjects. The therapeutic session proposed by Winnicott acknowledges the value of using the psychoanalytic method in a process, which does not mean that one is performing a standard psychoanalytic treatment. This session method is extended to the group and family treatment, using the group pictogram in punctual situations. Our proposal is to use a mediator for the institutional work with psychotic patients, tending to proceed to the act with psychosomatic traumas due to difficulty to communicate only orally. It is believed that the group pictogram resource, which is still little exploited in the institutional practices area, may facilitate the enunciation of something that cannot be named or symbolically represented due to fear or mechanisms such as suppression, repression and denegation, among others. The group association chains provided by the use of the group pictogram show that it is possible to develop and transform at the same time: the individual subjectively acquiring the experience, the intersubjective relationships and the group, thanks to the group association work and the effects of intersubjectivity and interdiscursivity. We have used the pictogram in therapeutic sessions with groups and families in a model of two or three sessions. We would like to point out the relevance of the group pictogram in other contexts such as individual or social traumatic situations