THE PREDICTORS OF RELATIONSHIP COMMITMENT: PERCEIVED PARENTING STYLE, PARENTAL APPROVAL, AND PSYCHOLOGICAL REACTANCE BeSikci, Ezgi M.S., Department of Psychology Supervisor: Prof. Dr. Nuray Sakalli-Ugurlu September 2008, 81 pages The main objective of the current thesis was to investigate the association between parental approval and romantic relationship commitment, and the roles of parenting style dimensions and psychological reactance in this association. Sample of the current study consisted of 166 METU students who had ongoing romantic relationships. An integrated model icluding associations between parenting style dimensions, parental approval, psychological reactance and relationship commitment was tested with LISREL 8. Since structural equation modeling did not provide results as informative as expected, the proposed model was examined as two seperate models. In the first model, the role of parental approval in the link between parenting style dimensions and relationship commitment was examined. In the second model, the role of psychological reactance in the link between parental approval and relationship commitment was examined. The results revealed that maternal acceptance had an indirect effect on relationship commitment via parental approval. In particular, increases in maternal acceptance led to increases in parental approval, which in turn led to increases in relationship commitment However, there was no significant finding regarding the impact of psychological reactance on the link between parental approval and relationship commitment. This thesis aims to make its own contribution to the literature by scrutinizing a) the association between parental approval and relationship commitment, and b) the role of parenting style dimensions in this association. Keywords: Relationship Commitment, Parental Approval, Perceived Parenting Styles, Psychological Reactance

The purpose of the current study was to examine the path of perceived parenting styles, emotion recognition, emotion regulation, and psychological well-being in terms of depression, obsessive-compulsive disorder and social anxiety symptoms consequently. For the purpose of this study 530 adults (402 female, 128 male) between the ages of 18 and 36 (M = 22.09, SD = 2.78) participated in the current study. The data was collected by a questionnaire battery including a Demographic Category Sheet, Short-EMBU (Egna Minnen Betraffande Uppfostran- My Memories of Upbringing), &ldquo / Reading the Mind in the Eyes&rdquo / Test (Revised), Emotion Regulation Questionnaire, Emotion Regulation Processes, Beck Depression Inventory, Liebowitz Social Anxiety Scale, Maudsley Obsessive Compulsive Inventory, White Bear Suppression Inventory, Thought-Action Fusion Scale, and Emotional Approach Coping Scale. The psychometric properties of Emotion Regulation Questionnaire and Emotion Regulation Processes were investigated and found to have good validity and reliability characteristics. The three sets of hierarchical multiple regression analyses were conducted to reveal the significant associates of psychological well-being. As expected, the results of the current study revealed that perceived parenting styles, different emotion regulation strategies and processes had associated with psychological well-being in terms of depression, obsessivecompulsive disorder and social anxiety symptoms. The findings, and their implications with suggestions for future research and practice, were discussed in the light of relevant literature.

Thesis (M.S.)--Miami University, Dept. of Kinesiology & Health, 2008. / Title from first page of PDF document. Includes bibliographical references (p. 75-81).

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