The goal of this research was to explore cohort differences in the role of communication in romantic relationships throughout the lifespan. This project explored the direct and indirect effects of attachment styles (i.e., anxious, avoidant) and negative communication patterns (i.e., Gottman's four horsemen: criticism, defensiveness, contempt, stonewalling) on commitment levels, psychosocial outcomes, attitudes toward union transitions (i.e., marriage, divorce, cohabitation), reasons for divorce, and reasons for delaying divorce as a direct function of experience with marital biographies. A marital biography refers to the history or experiences with union transitions in romantic relationships. A secondary aim is to test differences in these same variables as a function of direct experience with divorce moderated by age at the first divorce. Participants, including young divorced adults between ages 18-49 (N = 162) and gray adults ages 50+ (N = 96), completed a survey with measures including attachment, communication practices, commitment, attitudes toward union transitions, psychosocial outcomes, reasons for divorce, and reasons for delaying divorce. The results indicated that, insecure attachment styles and Gottman's four horsemen are predictive of divorce, with stonewalling being an aggravating factor, particularly for anxious attachment styles, and the risk for divorce. The experience of union transitions, especially divorce, affect how we approach future romantic relationships in addition to altering psychosocial outcomes, personal, moral, and structural commitment. Gender differences were found in divorced participants’ personal and moral commitment, psychosocial outcomes, and reasons for divorce. Age at first divorce-related differences were present in participants' structural commitment, reasons for divorce, length of delay, and reasons for delaying divorce. Even though age at first divorce was not a moderating factor, it still played an important role in reasons leading up to and outcomes of divorce.

Two studies were conducted to determine how self-forgiveness and other perpetrator reactions influence the perpetrator and the victim after a romantic relationship transgression. Study 1 used a longitudinal design to determine how guilt and shame predicted the trajectory of self-forgiveness, self-excusing, and self-punishing in participants who had recently been the perpetrator of a romantic relationship transgression. Those experiencing higher guilt at baseline had higher self-forgiveness starting out and those lower on guilt starting out had a greater change in self-forgiveness. Those experiencing more guilt at baseline experienced less change in self-forgiveness over time. Shame was not significantly related to self-forgiveness over time. Those experiencing higher shame at baseline were higher in self-excusing starting out. Those lower on shame starting out had a greater increase in self-excusing over time and those experiencing more shame at baseline experienced less increase in self-excusing over time. Guilt was not significantly related to self-excusing over time. Neither guilt nor shame predicted change in self-punishment over time. In Study 2, couples came into the lab and wrote about the same offense. One participant wrote from the perspective of the perpetrator and the other from the perspective of the victim. Victims reported their forgiveness and perception of their partners’ reactions to wrongdoing. Perpetrators reported their perception of their partners’ feelings of forgiveness and their feelings of self-forgiveness, self-excusing, and self-punishing. Both members reported their relationship satisfaction and commitment. Overall, self-forgiveness by the perpetrator was not a strong predictor of perpetrator satisfaction or commitment. Victims were more satisfied and committed when perceiving self-forgiveness from their partner, even though their partners’ self-forgiveness did not have an effect. Self-forgiveness only positively predicted perpetrators’ satisfaction and commitment when participants reported decisional self-forgiveness. Victims’ perceptions of the perpetrators’ self-excusing and perpetrators’ self-punishing negatively predicted victim commitment and satisfaction. Victims’ perceived perpetrator self-punishing positively predicted perpetrators’ commitment. Perpetrator perceived victim forgiveness and victim forgiveness both positively predicted satisfaction for the perpetrator and the victim. This suggests that perpetrators’ perceptions of victim forgiveness may be more important for the perpetrator than the victim actually forgiving them.

Non-suicidal self-injury (referred to hereafter as self-injury) is considered a serious health concern among young adult populations, and is associated with a host of devastating physical and psychological consequences (Hasking, Momeni, Swannell, & Chia, 2008). Self-injury encompasses both thoughts of harming oneself in addition to acts of self-injury. Elevated lifetime prevalence rates of 13-17% suggest that self-injury is an issue of widespread nature, with reports indicating that a considerable proportion of young adults engage in self-injurious thoughts and behaviours (Nixon, Cloutier, & Jansson, 2008; Swannell, Martin, Page, Hasking, & St John, 2014; Whitlock, Eckenrode, & Silverman, 2006). Identifying the factors that precede self-injury is crucial to advancing current clinical conceptualizations and treatment strategies for those engaging in such thoughts and behaviours (Schenk, Noll, & Cassarly, 2010). Despite the recognized role of romantic relationship experiences in contributing to the functioning and adjustment of the individuals comprising the romantic dyad, very little empirical attention has been paid to examining whether dimensions of romantic relationships are linked to the use of self-injury. The present thesis, consisting of two independent studies, sought to provide a better understanding of the factors underlying this troubling phenomenon by examining links between dimensions of romantic relationships and self-injurious thoughts and behaviours among community-based young adults involved in couple relationships. The studies presented in the present thesis were approved by the University of Ottawa’s Research Ethics Board (see Appendix A for the Ethics Approval Certificate). The first study involved testing a novel conceptual model in which intimate partner violence victimization (i.e., physical, psychological, and sexual violence) was examined as a potential mediator of the relationship between child maltreatment (i.e., neglect; witnessing family violence; and physical, psychological, and sexual abuse) and self-injurious thoughts and behaviours. The sample consisted of 406 young adults (346 females; M = 19.87 years) who were involved in a couple relationship for a duration of at least six months at the time of participation. Results from bootstrapping procedures partially supported the theory put forth. Intimate partner violence victimization partially mediated the direct effect of child maltreatment on self-injurious behaviours. Contrary to predictions, intimate partner violence victimization did not mediate the association between child maltreatment and self-injurious thoughts. Hence, findings suggest that individuals who have experienced both forms of family violence may be particularly vulnerable to engaging in self-injurious behaviours. The second study comprised an investigation of the links between the three romantic behavioural systems (consisting of the attachment, caregiving, and sexual systems) and self-injurious thoughts and behaviours, and examined the incremental contributions of the systems in the prediction of young adult self-injury. The sample consisted of 255 young adults (223 females; Mage = 19.98 years) currently involved in a couple relationship. Linear discriminant analyses revealed that participants endorsing self-injurious thoughts experienced greater attachment anxiety and avoidance, controlling and compulsive romantic caregiving behaviours, and lower sexual satisfaction than did participants who did not endorse such thoughts. In contrast, findings indicated that the behavioural systems did not predict self-injurious behaviours. Such findings suggest that dimensions of the three interrelated behavioural systems hold unique roles in understanding young adult self-injurious thoughts, and that the constructs that predict self-injurious thoughts may differ from those that predict self-injurious behaviours.

Although a large body of research on financial management in marriages and conflict/divorce as outcomes of financial problems exists, the topic of how individuals describe the communicative processes leading to positive outcomes regarding financial conversations remains understudied. Because financial conversations emerge as a strong “tug-of-war” opponent to the successful partnership couples hope to achieve, this study sought to understand how romantic pairs talk about money in ways that lead to positive results. By using an interpretive approach, this study used online, open-ended survey questions to gather stories to better understand how married couples effectively discuss finances. The participant stories explained how individuals in committed romantic partnerships described successful conversations they had with their partner about money. The data were thematically coded using Spradley’s (1979) taxonomic coding categories. The stories from the 100 participants revealed specific strategies that couples used during positive financial conversations that led to positive relational outcomes. This study first reveals a taxonomy of tactics that individuals use in positive conversations about finances. Second, this study supports and offers new contributions to relational maintenance literature (Canary & Stafford, 1992; Stafford, 2011; Stafford & Canary, 1991; Stafford et al., 2000) regarding how maintenance strategies are used when talking about money. Finally, this study offers a taxonomy of reported relational outcomes for couples who have positive financial conversations. The knowledge gained from this study will be helpful to all couples who wish to positively navigate financial matters.

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Almost everyone has some experience of seeing fictional couples in visual entertainment media. A large body of research has investigated the relationship depictions and their effects on how people perceive their own relationships. These studies have clearly shown that relationship representations in movies or TV series have an impact on the way we perceive our own relationships and are regulated by our exposure to them. However, these studies have primarily focused on the romanticised representations found in romantic comedies, or children's movies. These studies have criticised these depictions as problematic and unrealistic. The statistics and selection of popular streaming services, like Netflix and HBO Max, does however reveal that these genres are not the ones that account for the most exposure. Despite this, less research has been done in genres like drama series that account for more exposure–and may render relationships in a more realistic light. The purpose of this study was therefore to describe how adult romantic relationships that subscribe to mono-normative ideals are portrayed in contemporary western drama series. Drawing on a theoretical framework of relationship theories in late modernity by authors like Beck and Beck-Gernsheim, Bauman and Illouz, the study analysed 3 seasons from each of 5 popular drama series. The findings show that relationships are depicted as a constant struggle between increasing relationship stability (through recognition) and decreasing stability through risk mentality, individualization and liquid love. In these shows, relationships are defined through the severity of problems they face, where the forces pulling couples apart simultaneously make out their foundation. The findings suggest that relationships representations in drama series are comparatively more realistic than their romanticised counterpart but no less problematic.

The presence of and/or search for meaning has divergent and salient outcomes for individuals’ physical, mental, and emotional well-being. Although numerous domains of meaning have been examined, the literature on the meaning of sex is sparse and lacks a quantitative measure. In this study, I aimed to validate a general Meaning of Sex (MOS) Measure that captured the presence of (MOS-P) and search for (MOS-S) the meaning of sex that predicted salient relational and sexual outcomes (i.e., relationship stability and satisfaction and sexual satisfaction). The MOS measure was based off of the Meaning in Life Questionnaire (MLQ) created by Steger and colleagues (2006), which also used the subscales of presence and searching. All participants (N = 856) reported engaging in what they considered to be sexual intercourse and were either single or in a relationship. The two subscales were distinct from one another and had good reliability. The MOS-S had a stronger (and negative) association with relationship stability and sexual satisfaction than the MOS-P. Further analyses revealed that there were significant interactions between the MOS-P and MOS-S. When individuals scored high on the MOS-P, searching for a meaning of sex no longer had a significant association with relationship stability or sexual satisfaction. Creating this measure is meaningful because it provides a more holistic picture of sexuality that has not been addressed in the literature.

A dissertation submitted to the Faculty of Arts in fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of Masters of Psychology (Clinical Psychology) in the Department of Psychology at the University of Zululand, 2017 / The aim of this study was to determine the prevalence of postnatal depression among adolescent mothers. The study was going to achieve this through a comparative approach. Two groups of adolescent mothers were compared. One group’s participants were still in relationships with their partners (child’s biological father), and the other group consisted of single adolescent partners without the child’s biological father, or a romantic partner. The research study was based in the Umhlathuze region, in two local townships, namely, Enseleni and Esikhawini Townships. A total of 100 adolescent mothers from two health care facilities were sampled for the current research study. A quantitative research methodology was adopted, as the study intended to compare nominal variables. A self-selection sampling method was utilised, and a validated tool called the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale (EPDS) was used to collect data. Furthermore, the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) was utilised for the purposes of data analysis. The study revealed that there was no evidence of an association between partner availability and postnatal depression among adolescent mothers. However, the limitations of the current research study were acknowledged. The study recommends that a more longitudinal study be conducted, with a closer look at the quality of romantic relations among adolescent couples, and their impact on postnatal health of both adolescent mothers and fathers. / National Research Foundation

Although youth aged 12-17 years old constitute a growing segment of Facebook users, the impact social networking websites may have on their psyche has not been well-studied. Additionally, researchers have not investigated peer pressure as a mediator between individuals overall attachment to Facebook and the desire to be involved in a romantic relationship among teens or adults. The purpose of this quantitative study was to examine the connection between Facebook attachment and perceived peer pressure, specifically with regard to romantic relationships in individuals aged 14-17 years. Impression management theory served as the theoretical framework. A survey design was used to examine whether study variables (Facebook attachment, perceived peer pressure, and romantic relationship desires) were correlated with one another and whether Facebook attachment served as a mediating variable. Participants (N = 42) completed online surveys comprised of three established surveys that measure levels of perceived peer pressure, interest in romantic relationships, and overall Facebook attachment. Data were examined using correlational analysis. No significant correlations were found between any study variables. Because of the lack of statistical significance, no decisive conclusions can be rendered. Recommendations for future research include the use of different recruitment methods and the updating of assent and consent regulations for psychological research involving minors. The study provides a starting point for future researchers to evaluate the role of social media in adolescent development. Implications for positive social change include a greater awareness of the role of social media in the psychological development of young teens.

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