The pathways through which individuals learn to appraise and behave in intimate relationships greatly influence the quality and stability of their relationships. Research on intimate relationships among college students guided by a socialization framework focusing on learning and ways of viewing relationships is limited. The purpose of the present exploratory study was to examine the experiences and processes wherein young Black collegiate women learn to approach, maintain, and reflect on their intimate relationships. This topic is particularly salient to Black collegiate women who find themselves navigating unbalanced dating scenes and negotiating love relationships while balancing academic achievement and career aspirations. Ten Black, heterosexual women attending a four-year institution of higher education participated in three in-depth interviews where they shared life experiences which contributed to their understanding of intimate relationships. Using symbolic interactionism as a guiding framework allowed me to discover the multiple descriptions and meanings the participants assign to the interactions in their families, with their peers, and in their symbolic environments. The narratives shared by the women in this study revealed a number of experiences which prompted them to engage in self-reflection, critique, and learning with respect to self-identity and intimate relationships. Hearing messages, observing others, and experiencing relationships for themselves provided these women with a foundation for knowing the importance of preserving self-worth and self-identity, establishing expectations, and communicating thoughts and feelings. Implications for practice include the importance of developing specialized relationship education culturally and socially relevant to Black collegiate women, training campus professionals on the unique needs and concerns of this population, and educating parents on communicating with daughters about intimate relationship development. Future research should devote specific attention to social context, paternal-daughter relationship communication, and parental relationship modeling.

The results of three studies are discussed in this thesis. In the first study, possible relationships between jealousy, aggression, sexual desire and post-conflict sex were investigated in a sample of 128 students and professionals from the East Midlands area. A model was proposed which predicted that jealousy will affect aggression; aggression will affect sexual desire and sexual desire will affect the possibility of post-conflict sex. Correlational analysis revealed that jealousy was significantly correlated to aggression and sexual desire; also, a strong significant relationship was found between aggression and post-conflict sex. Correlations were also discovered between aggression and sexual desire and between sexual desire and post-conflict sex. Further analysis using Structural Equation Modelling tested and supported a model which showed that jealousy influenced aggression and sexual desire, which in turn may influence post-conflict sex. The second study explored partners' possible conciliatory acts in post-conflict situations. The aim was to gain insight in the peace-making process and identify the ways in which . partners attempt to reach closure over an argument and return to how they were before the argument occurred. Interviews with 13 males and females were conducted. The interviews were transcribed and analysed using Thematic Networks Analysis. The results revealed that participants reached 'Perceived Closure' through four possible pathways a) Avoiding further conflict, b) Gaining control of the situation, c) Providing/receiving assurances, and d) Achieving normality. The exact processes involved in these pathways were found to be defined by clusters of basic themes. The themes that emerged showed that participants used affection, sex, distancing, apology and humour in order to return to normality and reach closure. This process was shown to be gradual as participants reported adopting a step-by-step approach that involves trying to gain control of their feelings and the situation, avoiding further arguments, reinstating feelings of security and safety and attempting to reinstate a sense of normality. The third study was designed to explore post-conflict conciliatory acts and investigate possible correlations with relationship satisfaction and positive and negative conflict outcomes patterns. The sample consisted of 139 partiCipants from the East Midlands area. The main findings were that participants who adopt constructive conflict styles (as shown from positive conflict outcomes) tend experience higher relationship satisfaction. Use of post-conflict conciliatory strategies was also predictive of higher relationship satisfaction.

The current study examined psychological distress in couples coping with a cancer diagnosis. Although it is widely recognised that spouses coping with a cancer diagnosis are at risk of psychological distress, debate exists within the literature regarding the amount of distress experienced by individuals, and about who is most at risk. Fifty-five couples coping with a cancer diagnosis completed questionnaires assessing psychological distress, social support and attachment style characteristics. Results indicated that partners psychological distress levels were more influenced by social support and attachment characteristics than patients were. Partners of those with cancer, who were higher on the insecure attachment dimensions, perceived providing and receiving less support and were less satisfied with support overall compared to less insecure partners. In addition to this, partner social support was significantly related to psychological distress, and attachment style was found to moderate this relationship. Specifically, partners were more vulnerable to psychological distress when they were higher on the insecure attachment dimensions and when support satisfaction was low or when they had a perception of low support receipt. Contrary to expectations, there were no significant findings for the patient group. Explanations and implications are discussed.

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) / This thesis explores the experiences of white women who partnered Chinese men and their children in southern Australia during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. It has been based on a wide range of sources, including newspapers, government reports, birth and marriage records, personal reminiscences and family lore, and highlights the contradictory images and representations of Chinese-European couples and their families which exist in those sources. It reveals that in spite of the hostility towards intimate interracial relationships so strongly expressed in discourse, hundreds of white women and Chinese men in colonial Australia came together for reasons of love, companionship, security, sexual fulfilment and the formation of family. They lived, worked and loved in and between two very different communities and cultures, each of which could be disapproving and critical of their crossing of racial boundaries. As part of this exploration of lives across and between cultures, the thesis further considers those families who spent time in Hong Kong and China. The lives of these couples and their Anglo-Chinese families are largely missing from the history of the Chinese in Australia and of migration and colonial race relations more generally. They are historical subjects whose experiences have remained in the shadows and on the margins. This thesis aims to throw light on those shadows, contributing to our knowledge not only of interactions between individual Chinese men and white women, but also of the way mixed race couples and their children interacted with their extended families and communities in Australia and China. This thesis demonstrates that their lives were complex negotiations across race, culture and geography which challenged strict racial and social categorisation.

Title from first page of PDF document. Includes bibliographical references (p. 34-37).

This study examines the effects of childhood verbal aggression on self-esteem and intimate relationships in adulthood. This study was based on the premises that an individual’s morals and behaviors are affected by one’s life experiences. A case study analysis approach was used to analyze data gathered from 151 participants in the South East region of the United States. The researcher found that the participants that showed lower levels of intimacy in relationships also have experienced threats, ridicule, or insults during childhood. The conclusions drawn from the findings suggest that an individual that experiences verbal aggression in childhood will affect their levels of intimacy in adulthood.

abstract: Romantic relationships are an important aspect of anyone's life. For individuals with an autism spectrum disorder, this is true as well. However, these people may experience relational dynamics and trajectories that are in some aspects either similar to or markedly different from those who are not on the spectrum. There are very few studies analyzing and understanding how adults with an ASD navigate romantic relationships. This particular study examined how turning points pertaining to relational escalation or de-escalation were recognized and understood by eight individuals (four men and four women) possessing an ASD. The Retrospective Interview Technique (RIT) was implemented in order to accrue data from participants. Each participant completed a RIT graph mapping out a romantic relationship of their choice by understanding when a turning point was identified and placing a mark next to the corresponding level of relational closeness or attachment. Once all turning points were mapped out, they were connected with lines so that a visual representation of the entire relationship may be viewed. Participants were then queried about how they knew that particular event (or mark) to be a turning point, how it impacted the relationship, and how they were, personally, influenced by it (how they responded to the event). Interviews were transcribed and explored through a grounded theory approach. Specifically, Braun and Clarke's thematic analysis method was applied to articulate interview data. The research revealed four main themes (Relational Genesis, Relational Escalation, Relational De-escalation and Conflict Management) as well as seventeen sub themes. Limitations for this study, information relating to discourses surrounding autism spectrum disorders and romantically intimate relationships, as well as, areas for future study are also discussed. / Dissertation/Thesis / Masters Thesis Communication Studies 2016

Covid-19 viruset, något som medförde en pandemi som ingen går oberörd igenom. Coronapandemin medför restriktioner som innebär mer tid i hemmet, och för par med tid med varandra än någonsin. Det gör det intressant att med den här studien, undersöka hur par upplever att det är att leva som par under rådande coronapandemi. Studien stödjer sig på ett teoretiskt och begreppsligt ramverk som tar sin grund i Giddens teori om det rena förhållandet och social reflexivitet, Baumans teori om liquid love samt Becks teori om risksamhället. En hermeneutisk metodansats valdes för undersökningen, och dialogiska intervjuer genomfördes med tio olika par som varit tillsammans minst fyra år. Studiens resultat presenterar en huvudtolkning som påvisar att  en viktig del av en fungerande relation under coronapandemin är “jaget”. Det innebär att det är viktigt för individerna i en relation att involvera sig själva i en relation för att inte känna en emotionell tomhet. Den individuella människans ’jag’ visade sig vara centralt i relationen, där det visats att det inte finns något “oss”, utan ett “mitt” och “ditt”. “Jaget” konstrueras mycket i samverkan med andra, vilket blir problematiskt när individer isoleras av en pandemi. Isoleringen gör att paren får svårare att hitta “jaget”, och då “jaget” visats vara en central del av relationen skapar det problem i den emotionella tillfredsställelsen hos paren.

No description available.

Sexuality and intimacy occupations are often considered valued life occupations by individuals and communities and can contribute to quality of life and relationship satisfaction (Diamond & Huebner, 2012; McGrath & Lynch, 2014; Sakellariou & Algado, 2006; Smith et al., 2011). Sexuality and intimacy occupations have the potential to play either enriching or detrimental roles in individuals lived experiences, which supports the notion that healthcare providers must be prepared to address these topics in practice (Collins et al., 2017; Deering et al., 2014; Diamond & Huebner, 2012; Espelage, Basile, Rue, & Hamburger, 2015; Papp, Erchull, Liss, Waaland-Kreutzer, & Godfrey, 2017; Smith et al., 2011). Despite the potentially powerful impact of sexuality and intimacy occupations on quality of life, there is a lackluster response to prioritize these occupations among occupational therapy (OT) clinicians and in OT curricula (Dyer & Nair, 2013; Hattjar, Parker, & Lappa, 2008; McGrath & Lynch, 2014; McGrath & Sakellariou, 2015). This doctoral project (1) identifies restrictive factors which enable OT professionals’ hesitancy to include sexuality and intimacy into scholarly, academic, and clinical practices, (2) identifies solutions informed by dissemination and implementation sciences to dismantle institutional and clinician level restrictions and enable clinical adoption, (3) analyzes available literature related to best practices in marketing, dissemination and implementation, and sexuality education for healthcare providers and (4) conducts a program evaluation of the Institute for Sex, Intimacy and Occupational TherapyLLC. Summative and formative results suggest that ISIOTLLC was successful in (1) generating enthusiasm for the brand and learning products, (2) conducting webinars which influenced clinical adoption, (3) building a coalition of advocates to promote institutional change, and (4) building credibility of the author as a subject matter expert on sexuality and intimacy within the OT profession. The project results will contribute to the profession by equipping OT professionals with a guide for including sexuality and intimacy into their academic or clinical practice. Enhancing clinical adoption of sexuality and intimacy into OT practice will improve the quality of life of the individuals, communities, and populations the profession serves. / 2020-06-18T00:00:00Z