Distance from a partner can put a strain on romantic relationships, especially when one is surrounded by attractive alternatives, as is often the case when moving away to college. Long distance relationships are often associated with increased stress, less relationship stability, and lower levels of relationship satisfaction. Distance may also be associated with cheating on one's romantic partner. The few studies that have examined cheating behavior in college students have found an increase in cheating over a very short, non-representative interval of time when partners were separated (e.g. spring break) but did not control for important variables such as alcohol use or relationship satisfaction. We were interested in determining if these effects could be replicated over a longer, more representative period of time (a full college semester). We examined whether distance predicted cheating among college students in committed relationships while accounting for relationship satisfaction and binge drinking, variables likely to play a role in cheating behavior. Using a large, aggregated sample (N=1,333) of college students in exclusive dating relationships, 10% percent of respondents reported physical cheating, 15% reported emotional cheating, and 6% reported both. Being 11-200 miles from a romantic partner was associated with a 31% increased likelihood of physical cheating compared to those in the same city as their partner. However, being 200+ miles from a romantic partner was associated with a slight reduction in the likelihood of physical cheating. There were no significant difference in the rates of cheating between men and women in our sample; however, these effects were moderated by gender such that distance was only related to an increased likelihood of physical cheating for women. For emotional cheating, distance was associated with an increased likelihood of cheating for both men and women. These results suggest that there is a distance danger zone for college students. Being in the same town and being very far away are associated with less likelihood of physical or emotional cheating than being in a middle zone in which your partner is around 100 miles away. Perhaps because those who have chosen to continue a relationship while living across the country are very committed to their partner, whereas living within driving distance but not the same city creates conditions that make cheating more likely.

Attempting to make sense of the oeuvre of Prud’hon in 1876, Edmond de Goncourt in his Catalogue Raisonné de Prud’hon contrasts Prud’hon’s paintings with the predominant art of David and his students. He describes Prud’hon as an isolated romantic artist, full of elegance, going against the virile masculine academic traditions of his day. Goncourt sees in Prud’hon the epitome of an erotic classicism, which he considers unique for his time. I seek to demonstrate that Prud’hon’s embrace of classicism reflects and propels a variety of contexts from the literary, aesthetic, philosophical, and cultural developments of his time. The significance of poignant upheaval and the political change from the ancien regime through the Revolution and the Empire had a considerable impact on the various moments examined in my dissertation. I use selected examples from his works and those of his contemporaries to serve as case studies to reveal key moments in the development of his oeuvre. Prud’hon’s oeuvre is vast, but my dissertation will highlight case studies from 1770-1815. I have analyzed central concepts of this period’s aesthetic and philosophical ideals, especially the philosophic treatises by French Enlightenment thinkers such as Rousseau and Diderot, and by classicists like Winckelmann and Quatremère de Quincy. Prud’hon’s transformations were also clearly impacted by the historical reality of the French Revolution and Empire.

Mindfulness has been found to enhance romantic relationships through the practice of remaining open, calm, and emotionally regulated during times of struggle. There was a gap in the literature, however, related to how the practice of mindfulness is subjectively experienced in women's romantic relationships. The purpose of this heuristic study was to understand how women's practice of mindfulness effects their romantic relationships. The conceptual framework for this study was mindfulness-to-meaning theory, which highlights that wellbeing is supported through 2 main mechanisms of mindfulness: savoring and reappraisal. The nature of this study was a qualitative approach using Moustakas's heuristic method. After the data were collected through semistructured interviews, 6 themes were identified. The themes were (a) heightened presence in the relationship; (b) enhanced emotional regulation within the relationship; (c) expanded awareness in the relationship; (d) stronger connection to self and partner; (e) increased gratitude for self, partner, and their shared life; and (f) continued growth in the relationship. Women identified feeling a sense of enhanced emotional regulation within the relationship which enables them to remain calm, less reactive, and better able to communicate with their partners during times of difficulty. The findings from this study confirmed and expanded previous research. This study may enhance understanding of how mindfulness may lead to deeper connection and stability in romantic relationships. By doing so, this study may also contribute to positive social change by informing the work of those in the wellness industry who provide support to women.

Divorce rates have consistently risen over the past several decades along with the subsequent increase in parental alienation occurring after the breakup of the family. Parental alienation has long-term negative effects on children who have experienced it, including mental health issues, increased risk of substance abuse, lower levels of self-sufficiency, and decreased physical health. The purpose of this quantitative, nonexperimental study was to determine whether alienation from a parent during childhood impacts the quality of adult romantic and marital relationships of the children when they become adults. The Bowen family systems theory and theory of attachment were used as the framework for the study. A convenience sample included 170 adult participants over the age of 18 who were either married or involved in a dating relationship who had parents that divorced during their childhood between the individual's birth and the age of 14. The results from multiple regression analyses indicated that alienation from father was a significant predictor of marital or dating relationship quality, and alienation from mother was a significant predictor of relationship happiness, satisfaction, and quality. As alienation from father or mother scores increased, the criterion variable scores decreased. Anxious attachment was also a significant predictor of relationship satisfaction as higher scores on anxious attachment resulted in lower relationship satisfaction scores. These findings have positive social change implications as practitioners may use the results to help individuals better understand their relationships and identify the negative lasting effects of parental alienation in adult relationships.

Romantic disengagement is a disturbingly prevalent yet understudied cause of marital distress and dissolution. Existing research on disengagement has been primarily descriptive and limited by reliance on retrospective reports from already disengaged spouses. Theoretically informed prospective research to elucidate the process through which some spouses become increasingly disengaged from their partners over time is necessary to facilitate clinical intervention efforts. Thus the purpose of this research was to propose a theoretically informed model of the process of romantic disengagement and then to perform preliminary tests of pieces of the model. The model was tested in a sample of 103 married couples assessed six times over their first seven years of marriage. Pieces of the model that were tested included (1) the implication that avoidant and disengaging behaviors toward one's partner, particularly during times of need or increased stress (such as marital conflict interactions), are indicators of a process of romantic disengagement, (2) that predispositional and contextual factors interact to predict a spouse's greater tendency to behave avoidantly during couple interactions, and (3) that spouses tendency to be more avoidant with his or her partner later in marriage will be greater to the extent that avoidance is reinforced early in marriage. First, I examined whether avoidant behavior during marital conflict contributes to a process of romantic disengagement as evidenced by declines in trust and intimacy and declines in marital satisfaction. Consistent with hypotheses, I found higher conflict avoidance was associated with declines in trust and intimacy and declines in marital satisfaction. Second, I tested two predispositional (i.e., spouses' attachment avoidance and avoidant coping style) and two contextual factors (spouses' role during support interactions, and the partner's negative affect) that were expected to interact to predict whether spouses behave avoidantly during specific couple interactions. I found mixed support for hypotheses depending on spouse and interaction type. Specifically, during conflict interactions, husbands and wives with higher attachment avoidance, and wives with more avoidant coping styles, behaved more avoidantly to the extent that their partners were higher in negative affect. During supportive transactions, husbands with more avoidant coping styles were more disengaged to the extent that their wives were higher in negative affect. Third, I tested my hypothesis that a spouse will be more avoidant with his or her partner later in marriage to the extent that avoidance is reinforced early in marriage. I found partial support for this hypothesis. Husbands' disengagement during conflict interactions interacted with improved mood post-interaction to predict husbands' disengagement across interactions at 7 years of marriage. In summary, this research presents an integrated theoretical model of romantic disengagement and provides preliminary support for aspects of the model.

Research casts interracial romantic partners (IRPs) as deficient in their relational functioning compared to same-race partners due to the potential for increased relational conflict and stress. More relational stressors are likely to result in a higher need for social support from network members. Yet, interracial partners can maintain satisfying, thriving relationships and experience few racially motivated stressors, rendering support unnecessary at times. The dissertation explores the social resources IRPs use to maintain their interracial romantic relationships (IRRs) by examining processes of social support and strain among Black-White IRPs and their family members. In these processes, the researcher focuses specifically on support expectations, which are anticipations of the support individuals are likely to receive from particular others. The researcher conducted in-depth interviews with 32 IRPs and 30 parents of IRPs to understand support as a cohesive, long-term process involving participants’ support expectations and their violations, which could result in experiences of support and/or strain. A grounded theory analysis of the interview data resulted in an inductive model of expectations for social support and strain. Three constructs influenced expectations for IRR involvement and support, including exposure to racial diversity, assessments of racial identifications, and cultural comparisons. Based on these expectations, participants came across three support paths after initiating support-seeking disclosure strategies. Their expectations for familial support were met, they received more support than they anticipated, and/or they received less support than expected. Encounters with these support paths resulted in support and strain for IRPs and their parents, however interracial partnerships largely experienced resilience whereas hardships befell familial ties. Taken together, the results contribute to theorizing about processes of support and their functionality in underrepresented romantic relationship forms.

This study investigated romantic relationship attitudes and experiences as factors of interethnic romantic relationships among Native American (NA) emerging adults. The study included 114 participants ages 18 to 25 years from about 70 NA indigenous groups across North America. Factors were organized into the moral, societal, and psychological domains of the social-cognitive domain theory. Factors identified by this study included four significant predictors of past interethnic dating and three significant predictors of future likelihood of NA dating among emerging adults with differences between NA relationships with Whites or with other minorities. Past dating experiences associated with strong White identity, past multicultural interaction, diversity climate in childhood community, and past parental support of interethnic dating relationships. Future likelihood of engagement in interethnic romantic relationships for NA emerging adults associated with past interethnic dating and other multicultural interactions. Past multicultural interactions was the only predictor that emerged in NA romantic relationships with both Whites and other minorities.

This study investigated empathic accuracy in adolescent romantic relationships. The project examined the relationships between psychological characteristics and relationship outcomes (i.e., satisfaction and aggression) to determine if the relationships were mediated by empathic accuracy. Participants were 92 heterosexual couples aged 14-18 years old who lived in rural areas in Utah and Arizona. Couple members completed surveys assessing attitudes and behaviors in their relationships and a video-recall procedure in which partners rated their own and their partner's behaviors during problem-solving discussion. Empathic accuracy was generally not related to psychological characteristics or outcomes. It became apparent that there were limitations with the methodology used to measure empathic accuracy. Due to the very strong correlations between participants' ratings of themselves and their ratings of their partners, ratings of self and partner were collapsed for each interaction variable to capture interpretations/biases employed by the participants in evaluating aspects of their interactions. The global video-recall ratings were then analyzed to determine if they mediated the relationships between psychological characteristics and outcomes. Rejection sensitivity emerged as an important psychological characteristic, and interpretations of conflict and sarcasm mediated the relationship between rejection sensitivity and outcomes of aggression and satisfaction.

Emerging adulthood (ages 18-25 years) is a developmental period marked by changes in attachment, the onset of serious dating relationships, and rates of intimate partner violence (IPV) up to 40% and 90% for physical and psychological IPV, respectively. This dissertation aims to investigate moderators of the link between insecure attachment, a known risk factor for IPV, and psychological IPV, coercive controlling behaviours, and relational aggression in emerging adulthood. One hundred and seventeen undergraduate students in dating relationships were recruited to partake in a baseline assessment followed by a 14-day daily diary study. During the baseline assessment, participants self-reported on putative trait level risk factors such as demographics and insecure attachment. During the daily diary portion, participants reported on their use of partner aggression (physical and psychological IPV, coercive controlling behaviours, and relational aggression; however, due to low base rates, physical IPV could not be analyzed as an outcome), as well as their experiences of felt partner acceptance and rejection, support and conflict in their relationships, alcohol use, and stress for each day. I hypothesized that attachment anxiety, problems in the dyadic relationship (inadequate support, conflict, and felt rejection and anxiety about acceptance), and putative disinhibitors (stress and alcohol consumption) would be directly linked to risk for perpetration of all forms of aggression and interact to predict risk for partner aggression. Hypotheses regarding partner support, conflict, and felt regard were also tested. Specifically, I hypothesized that ratings of partner support fit, hurt as a result of conflict, and daily felt regard would differ for more insecurely attached versus more securely attached individuals. Following application of exclusion criteria, data from 98 participants were analyzed using multilevel modeling in Hierarchical Linear Modeling (Raudenbush et al., 1995). The results from this dissertation underscore the importance of attachment anxiety as an individual risk factor for IPV and identified more proximal risk factors that fluctuate on a daily basis. Attachment anxiety, felt rejection, and conflict were related to risk for all three forms of IPV. Unexpectedly, attachment avoidance was linked to decreased risk for coercive control. Anxiety about acceptance was uniquely associated with risk for psychological IPV, and inadequate support fit was uniquely associated with risk for coercive control. Greater attachment anxiety interacted with high conflict to predict greater risk for coercive control. No other significant two-way interactions between attachment anxiety and problems in the dyadic relationship emerged. Contrary to hypotheses, stress and alcohol consumption were linked to decreased risk for coercive control. Stress also appeared to suppress the link between dyadic problems and risk for psychological IPV on a given day, and dyadic problems paired with alcohol consumption was related to a decreased risk of coercive control. High stress and greater dyadic problems interacted to predict greater risk for coercive control as expected. No conclusions could be drawn about 2-way interactions between stress and dyadic problems and alcohol consumption and dyadic problems when predicting relational aggression, as the model did not converge. This study did not find support for the “perfect storm theory” of aggression (in which a 3-way interaction between risk factors is associated with greatest risk of IPV) when predicting psychological IPV. The “perfect storm theory” could not be tested in relation to coercive control and relational aggression as these models did not converge. The findings from this study contribute to our knowledge of why some people perpetrate IPV and not others, and why people perpetrate IPV on some days and not others. These results inform the multiple possible points of entry for prevention and interventions aiming to promote healthy relationships in emerging adults. / Graduate

Healthy romantic relationships are positively associated with physical and mental health outcomes, and past research has shown that traditional masculinity negatively impacts relationship satisfaction. The current study examined the effects of men's discrepancies between their self-ratings and perceptions of their peers' on autonomous and pressured motivations to act agentically on relationship outcomes for both partners in a heterosexual relationship. In addition, men's investment in gender ideals was measured as a potential moderator and men's self-esteem as a potential mediator. Specifically, it was predicted that men's self-esteem would mediate the association between the investment-by-discrepancies (autonomous and pressured) interactions and relationship satisfaction reported by both partners. Results of polynomial regressions on 183 romantic relationship dyads did not support predictions. Limitations presented include scale validity, the correlational design of the study, and the conceptualization of pressured and autonomous motivations as opposites of each other. Future directions included exploring the various forms of men's agentic extrinsic motivations and how they associate with relationship outcomes; and the utilization of real-time relationship behaviors observed during an interaction between romantic relationship partners.