The purpose of this study was to investigate the influences of parental characteristics (i.e., marital status, parenting styles, parenting style congruence) and gender on the development of marital attitudes and fears of intimacy in young adults. A total of 326 undergraduate students (ages 18 to 25) participated in this study. After conducting prescreening procedures, 283 participants consisting of 241 women and 42 men were included in the final analyses.The aforementioned areas were investigated by analyzing surveys comprised of a demographic questionnaire, the Marital Attitude Scale (Braaten & Rosen, 1998), the Fear of Intimacy Scale (Descutner & Thelen, 1991), and the Parental Authority Questionnaire (Buri, 1989). Multiple regression analyses were conducted to assess the ability ofparenting style congruence, parental marital status, and gender to predict marital attitudes and fear of intimacy. Paired samples t-tests were used to analyze the relationships between gender and marital attitude as well as gender and fear of intimacy. Finally, a series of MANOVAs were conducted to explore the effects of martial status, parenting style congruence, and mother and father's parenting styles on marital attitudes and fear of intimacy.In general, fear of intimacy and marital attitudes were related to parental marital status and gender, but not to parenting style congruence. Specifically, men endorsed a greater fear of intimacy than women, while women endorsed more positive marital attitudes than men. Adult children of divorce (ACD) feared intimacy more than adult children from intact families (ACIF), and ACIF were more positive in their marital attitudes than ACD. Fear of intimacy in women was not related to any of the parental factors examined. However, ACIF women endorsed more positive marital attitudes than ACD women, and women who described their parents as congruent in their parenting styles endorsed more positive marital attitudes than women who described their parents as incongruent.By integrating these areas, the current study addressed some of the inconsistent findings in the adult children of divorce literature. It also explored young adult development as it relates to the family life cycle, provided recommendations for future research, and discussed implications for real world application. / Department of Counseling Psychology and Guidance Services
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:BSU/oai:cardinalscholar.bsu.edu:handle/177399 |
| Date | January 2005 |
| Creators | Klein, Heather K. |
| Contributors | Kruczek, Theresa A. |
| Source Sets | Ball State University |
| Detected Language | English |
| Format | vii, 155 leaves ; 28 cm. |
| Source | Virtual Press |
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