Yes / Objectives: The quality of the relationship between people with dementia and their informal caregiver maybe an important determinant of life satisfaction and well-being for both members of the dyad. Taking a dyadic perspective, the aim of this study was to examine whether self- and partner- rated relationship quality influences life satisfaction and well-being for both people with dementia and their caregivers. Design and methods: Using data from 1283 dyads in the Improving the Experience of Dementia and Enhancing Active Life (IDEAL) cohort, we examined the impact of current relationship quality on life satisfaction and well-being in dementia caregiving dyads. Data were analysed using the Actor–Partner Interdependence Model (APIM) framework. Results: Self-rated relationship quality was associated with own life satisfaction and well-being for both people with dementia and caregivers. Partner-rated relationship quality did not influence own life satisfaction or well-being for either member of the dyad. Conclusion: This study is the first to use the APIM framework to explore the dyadic associations between relationship quality and life satisfaction and well-being in a large cohort of dementia caregiving dyads. The obtained findings suggest that the individual perception of the quality of the caregiving relationship held by each member of the caregiving dyad is an important factor for that member’s life satisfaction and well-being, while the partner’s perception of relationship quality is not. The findings highlight the importance of considering the individual perspective of both the person with dementia and the caregiver and enabling each to maintain positive perceptions of relationship quality. / ‘Improving the experience of Dementia and Enhancing Active Life: living well with dementia. The IDEAL study’ was funded jointly by the Economic and Social Research Council (UK) and the National Institute for Health Research (UK) through grant ES/L001853/2 ‘Improving the experience of dementia and enhancing active life: living well with dementia’

Doctor of Philosophy / School of Family Studies and Human Services / Jared R. Anderson / The current study proposes a theoretical model of Interracial Couple Relationship Success and empirically tests a portion of the model in which ethnic identity is linked to relationship satisfaction for Black-White interracial couples. Data were collected from 185 heterosexual Black-White marital couples in the United States. An actor-partner interdependence model (APIM) was used to test the direct and indirect effects of ethnic identity to relationship satisfaction via self-esteem and problem-solving skills. The results indicated ethnic identity of both Black and White partners was related to Black but not White partners’ self-esteem. Findings also revealed significant indirect pathways from Black partners’ self-esteem to their own relationship satisfaction via effective problem-solving skills. The indirect pathway from Black partners’ self-esteem to partner relationship satisfaction was also mediated by partner perceptions of problem-solving in the relationship. The results of this study informs the continued development of the of Interracial Couple Relationship Success model and offers data regarding the role of identity and individual well-being in the context of interracial relationships.

According to Cohn (2015), by the year 2065 about one-in-three Americans would be an immigrant or have immigrant parents projecting that incoming immigrants, and their children will steer majority of the United States (U.S.) population growth in the next 50 years. According to the projections for 2065, 78 million will be immigrants and 81 million will be individuals born in the U.S. to immigrant parents (see Figure 1). After immigrants from Mexico and China, the third largest immigrant group residing in the U.S. is from Asian-Indian origin. The percentage of Asian-Indian immigrants compared to all other immigrants in the U.S. has consistently proliferated. Considering this pattern of incoming Asian-Indian immigrants, research on parental involvement among Asian-Indians raising children who are U.S. citizens and future Americans is sparse. According to a national level study on paternal involvement with young children, “virtually no research has examined fatherhood among immigrants. Eighteen percent of current births are to mothers born outside of the U.S.; if the fathers also are foreign-born, this is a major gap in existing knowledge” (U.S. Department of Education, 2001, p. 22). The current study aimed to understand Asian-Indian immigrant couples’ factors influencing fathers’ involvement with school-aged children (6-10 years). Specifically, the study focused on the marital adjustment, parenting self-efficacy and gender-role beliefs about parenting. Parenting is believed to be codependent and nested within a family and cultural structure. While parenting research consistently demonstrates more maternal involvement with children, often fathers’ involvement gets little or no attention. One of the major limitations of fathering research is single source data, often comprising of only mothers’ reports. The purpose of this study was to address this research gap by examining the nested nature of human development using family systems theory. Actor-partner interdependence model (APIM), a type of dyadic data analysis, was used to examine the actor (spillover) and partner (crossover) effects of parents’ independent variables on their as well as their partners’ reports of paternal involvement. Self-report surveys were collected from 127 Asian-Indian immigrant parents. All the measurement scales had high reliabilities. Results for fathers revealed significant spillover effects of marital adjustment, parenting self-efficacy, and parenting gender role beliefs on fathers’ involvement, and for mothers, only marital adjustment effect on their reports of father involvement. These findings indicate that father involvement is enhanced when both fathers’ and mothers’ are adjusted in their marriage, when fathers’ feel competent in their parenting role and they have egalitarian gender beliefs about parenting. Partner or crossover effects were found from mothers’ marital adjustment onto fathers’ reports of involvement and, fathers’ parenting self-efficacy onto mothers’ reports of fathers’ involvement. These partner effects reveal that fathers’ involvement depend on how adjusted mothers are in their marriage and, mothers’ reports of fathers’ involvement depend on how efficient fathers are in their parenting role. In summary, the current study strongly supported family systems theory and demonstrated how the current immigrant parents, and the future families of America, adapt to succeed and re-structure lives in their ‘new home’.

This dissertation examined individual and joint storytelling as a communicative process to explore relational turbulence about stressful events. Response to change in romantic relationships inherently involves a degree of instability as individuals alter their thoughts and actions. The instability and chaos that results when transitions impact interpersonal relationships is relational turbulence (e.g., Knobloch & Solomon, 2004). The theoretical focus is the relational turbulence model (RTM) that serves to illustrate the ambiguity and complexity embedded in relationship experiences and the negotiation of behavior. Examination of stories showcased the representational relational state (i.e., uncertainty) and cognitive activities (i.e., partner interdependence) present in the relationship. First, the dissertation further positioned the influence turbulence has on individual and relational communication to negotiate discomfort, negative emotions, and difficulties that ensued during transitions. Second, this study examined expressions individuals chose to highlight, through storytelling, that apply to relational turbulence mechanisms: relational uncertainty and interdependence. Third, this dissertation examined identity development and/or fluctuation as a byproduct of turbulence exhibited through stories exploring another potential relational turbulence mechanism. A review of literature discussed the theoretical framework for the relational turbulence model and storytelling content and structure. The exploration of stories and storytelling was reviewed as a means for investigating RTM, followed by analysis procedures outlining individual and relational storytelling processes. Results revealed 14 transitional events categories and 23 subcategories. Additionally, qualitative themes and subthemes that emerged for relational uncertainty, partner interdependence, individual and relational identity. Results for relational uncertainty triangulated previous scholarship while also identified two new themes. Partner interdependence results indicated more specificity in forms of partner interference and facilitation. Identity emerged as a third mechanism and preliminary investigation found static and dynamic forms. Quantitative results analyzed significant correlations and comparisons between narrative completeness in individuals' and relational partners' storytelling experiences. The dissertation highlighted how relational turbulence influenced the storytelling content and structure of individual and joint stories. / text

abstract: With the establishment of the emerging adult developmental period and the rise of helicopter parents, attachment theory provides foundation for conceptualizing the continued involvement of helicopter parents in their emerging adults’ emotion regulation processes. This study utilized dyadic data from 66 emerging adult children and their helicopter parents to examine the association of helicopter parent-emerging adult communication in mitigating the associations between experiences of affect and stress. Specifically, the purpose of the present study was to use dyadic data to examine how communication within the helicopter parent-emerging adult relationship associates with emerging adults’ ability to regulate experiences of negative and positive affect. Both associations within the emerging adult and helicopter parent individually (actor effects) and how helicopter parents impact construct associations for emerging adults’ (partner effects) were considered. Two multilevel mediation models using Actor-Partner Interdependence Models were conducted to assess the relations between affect, stress, and helicopter parent-emerging adult communication quality for negative and positive affect separately. The positive direct effect between negative affect and stress was statistically significant for emerging adults, but not for helicopter parents, suggesting that, for emerging adults, higher perceptions of negative affect were associated with higher levels of stress. The direct and indirect effects for the mediation model examining actor and partner effects between negative affect, communication quality, and stress were non-significant for both emerging adults and helicopter parents. The direct effect between positive affect and stress was statistically significant for helicopter parents but not for emerging adults; however, the directionality of the significant association was positive and not as hypothesized. Finally, the direct and indirect effects for the mediation model examining actor and partner effects between positive affect, communication quality, and stress were non-significant for emerging adults and helicopter parents. Considerations for future studies examining aspects of attachment within emotion regulation for the helicopter parent-emerging adult relationship and the importance of considering relationship characteristics, such the relational characteristics of social support and conflict, are discussed. / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation Counseling Psychology 2017

abstract: Guided by Alberts, Tracy and Trethewey's (2011) integrated theory of the division of domestic labor, this dissertation examined the influence of domestic labor response threshold (i.e., the point at which one is sufficiently disturbed by a task undone so as to feel compelled to attend to it) on domestic labor performance and domestic labor conflict. Three-hundred-ten heterosexual participants (155 marital dyads; average marriage length of 20 years) completed an online questionnaire about their performance of household labor, household labor conflict, and response thresholds. Response thresholds were assessed using traditional verbal measures as well as two visual (i.e., photographic) measures developed for this investigation. The data were analyzed using three methods of dyadic data analysis: structural equation modeling, repeated measures multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA), and actor-partner interdependence models using multilevel modeling. Results indicate that the lower one's response threshold, and the higher one's partner's response threshold, the greater one's contributions to household tasks. Additionally, the lower one's response threshold, and the higher one's partner's response thresholds, the more likely the demand-withdrawal pattern is to emerge in domestic labor conflicts. Finally, mutual avoidance is more likely when one partner perceives that it is less costly to complete domestic work than to engage in conflict about it, or when one partner perceives that domestic labor is not a worthwhile or appropriate conflict topic. Contributions of this investigation include support for the integrated theory of the division of domestic labor, increased understanding of how individual differences (working in concert with actor sex) contribute to domestic labor allocation and conflict, a more sensitive measure of response threshold, and preliminary evidence of the "logics" of avoidance of domestic labor conflict. / Dissertation/Thesis / Ph.D. Communication 2012

The purpose of this study is to determine whether adult attachment style, psychological abuse in the marriage, conflict resolution strategies, and gender are associated with relational quality in childless couples in the early years of their marriage. Data were collected from 92 married couples who were recruited from university campuses, churches, and community organizations through e-mails, flyers, newspaper advertisements and mailings. Conceptualizing the interdependence of dyadic data from the actor-partner interdependence model (APIM), multilevel linear modeling (MLM) was used to analyze differences within and between couples. It was hypothesized that higher levels of attachment anxiety or avoidance, psychological abuse, and maladaptive conflict resolution strategies would be associated with lower relational quality. Results indicated that attachment avoidance had stronger associations with relational quality than did attachment anxiety, and that higher levels of attachment avoidance were associated with lower relational quality. Additionally, findings indicated a direct negative relationship between both actor and partner psychological abuse and the actor's relational quality. The discussion section addresses strengths and limitations of the present study as well as directions for future research.

Recent literature in couple therapy has demonstrated the effects of physical health on some common presenting problems; however, few studies have considered progress as a construct on its own, irrespective of client-identified presenting problem. The current study used an Actor-Partner Interdependence Mediated Model to determine the connection between each partner's physical health and their own and their partner's self-reported progress in couple therapy, mediated by each partner's emotional regulation. Physical health was measured every four sessions using the Health-Related Quality of Life scale, and progress was measured by the Presenting Problem Progress Questionnaire given each time a couple attended therapy. Emotional regulation was measured by the Difficulties in Emotion Regulation scale. The research questions asked whether healthier people and/or their partners would be more emotionally regulated and therefore experience more progress. Results indicated a significant predictive relationship between individual health and presenting problem progress for males and females; however, neither association was mediated by emotional regulation. Additional results suggested that health may predict emotional regulation for both male and female clients, with female health also predicting variation in male emotional regulation. Clinicians are encouraged to consider client health as a predictor of emotional regulation and create treatment goals that facilitate improvements to client health.

Pornography has increasingly become a hot topic of discussion in the United States, likely due to its increasing rate of consumption. Recent scholarship has indicated the need to account for factors such as masturbation and sexual desire discrepancy when conducting pornography research. The current study isolated the influence pornography use had on those in heterosexual romantic relationships (N=713 couples) by parsing out the effects of sexual desire discrepancy and masturbation. This was done by using a series of nested actor-partner interdependence models (APIM) to see how the relationships between pornography use and sexual satisfaction changed in each model. Masturbation and sexual desire discrepancy were also investigated as potential moderators for the APIMs to explore the effects the levels of these variables had on that relationship. Results from these analyses demonstrated that the best-fitting model included measures of masturbation, sexual desire discrepancy, and sexual engagement (i.e., controls for the values making up sexual desire discrepancy), and that adding each of these variables to the model significantly changed pornography use's actor and partner effects. Masturbation and sexual desire discrepancy were not found to moderate these relationships. A discussion of the research implications of these findings, the limitations of this study, future directions for research, and clinical implications of this study are also presented.

The present study aimed to examine intra- and interpersonal associations between poor mental health and mother–daughter relationship closeness in a sample of 467 dyads. An Actor–Partner Interdependence Model was utilized to examine bidirectional processes between mothers (mean age = 42.64, SD = 6.5) and their adolescent daughters (mean age = 15.37, SD = 1.15). The independent variable was self-reported poor mental health and the dependent variable was relationship closeness. Additionally, communication satisfaction was examined as a potential interpersonal mediator of the pathway between poor mental health and relationship closeness. Daughters’ self-reported poor mental health negatively predicted their own perception of closeness as well as mothers’ perception of closeness. Additionally, we find evidence that perceived communication may explain (i.e., mediate) both the actor effect (one’s own poor mental health on one’s own perception of closeness) and the partner effect (partner’s poor mental health on one’s own perception of closeness). Our results suggest that when daughters’ mental health is poor, relationship closeness as perceived by mother and daughter may be weakened, and that this effect may in part be explained by poor communication between mother and daughter. Strategies to promote family communication, especially for families experiencing mental health problems, may aid in the development of closer mother–daughter relationships. Further, our results suggest the importance of investigating the potential bidirectional influence of mothers’ and daughters’ mental health on parent-adolescent relationship quality within a dyadic unit.