Relatively little research has focused on the positive adjustment of emerging adult adoptees (Palacios & Brodzinsky, 2010). Given the developmental context of emerging adulthood (Arnett, 2000), it is important to select a measure of adjustment that reflects the increased ambiguity seen in this time period. The present study aims to develop and validate a measure of relational competence, or competence in one’s closest relationship regardless of relationship type (i.e., romantic vs. nonromantic). This measure will be created by adapting the Romantic Competence Interview, a measure of romantic competence previously used with emerging adults (Shulman, Davila, & Shachar-Shapira, 2011). Participants included 162 emerging adult adoptees who were recruited as part of a larger longitudinal study (Grotevant, McRoy, Wrobel, & Ayers-Lopez, 2013). Indicators of relational competence were selected from measures of intimacy maturity coded from interviews in which participants discussed their self-identified closest relationship (White, Speisman, Costos, Kelly, & Bartis, 1984). Confirmatory factor analysis showed that the proposed model of relational competence was a good fit to the data and that this model was invariant across relationship type and gender. No differences in relational competence scores were found by relationship type or by gender
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:UMASS/oai:scholarworks.umass.edu:masters_theses_2-1611 |
| Date | 21 March 2018 |
| Creators | Cashen, Krystal K. |
| Publisher | ScholarWorks@UMass Amherst |
| Source Sets | University of Massachusetts, Amherst |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Source | Masters Theses |
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