abstract: Although social learning and attachment theories suggest that parent-adolescent relationships influence adult romantic relationships, research on this topic is limited. Most research examining relations between mother-adolescent and father-adolescent relationship quality and young adult romantic relationship quality has found significant effects of mother-adolescent relationship quality. Findings on fathers have been less consistent. These relations have not been examined among youth who experienced parental divorce, which often negatively impacts parent-child relationships and romantic outcomes. Further, no prior studies examined interactive effects of mother-adolescent and father-adolescent relationship quality on romantic attachment. The current study used longitudinal data from the control group of a randomized controlled trial of a preventative intervention for divorced families to examine unique and interactive effects of mother-adolescent and father-adolescent relationship quality on young adult romantic attachment. The 72 participants completed measures of mother-adolescent relationship quality and father-adolescent relationship quality during adolescence (ages 15-19), and completed a measure of romantic attachment (anxiety and avoidance) during young adulthood (ages 24-28). Findings revealed significant interactive effects of mother-adolescent and father-adolescent relationship quality on young adult romantic anxiety. The pattern of results suggests that having a high quality relationship with one's father can protect children from negative effects of having a low quality relationship with one's mother on romantic anxiety. These results suggest the importance of examining effects of one parent-adolescent relationship on YA romantic attachment in the context of the other parent-adolescent relationship. Exploratory analyses of gender revealed that father-adolescent relationship quality significantly interacted with gender to predict romantic avoidance; this relation was stronger for males. These results suggest that nonresidential fathers play an important role in adolescents' working models of relationships and their subsequent romantic attachment. / Dissertation/Thesis / M.A. Psychology 2013
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:asu.edu/item:17739 |
| Date | January 2013 |
| Contributors | Carr, Colleen (Author), Wolchik, Sharlene A (Advisor), Doane, Leah (Committee member), Tein, Jenn-Yun (Committee member), Arizona State University (Publisher) |
| Source Sets | Arizona State University |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Masters Thesis |
| Format | 75 pages |
| Rights | http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/, All Rights Reserved |
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