Overparenting and Emerging Adults’ Insecure Attachment With Parents and Romantic Partners

2021 ◽  
pp. 216769682199771
Author(s):  
Jian Jiao ◽  
Chris Segrin

Attachment theory articulates that social and personal interactions influence individuals’ attachment characteristics. Although research has revealed various negative consequences of overparenting among offspring, very few studies have looked at the attachment features of overparented emerging adults. Relying on cross-sectional data collected from 231 emerging adults ( M age = 24.22 years, 57.1% females) recruited from Amazon’s Mechanical Turk (MTurk), the present study examined the associations between overparenting and emerging adults’ insecure attachment (i.e., attachment anxiety and/or avoidance) in parent-offspring and romantic contexts, and if overparented emerging adults delay marriages. Results showed that overparenting was robustly associated with emerging adults’ insecure attachment with both parents and romantic partners, and overparented emerging adults were less likely to be married. Overall, the findings suggest that overparenting practices, although seemingly well-intentioned, might indeed create barriers for emerging adults to develop and maintain positive and healthy relationships.

2018 ◽  
Vol 36 (34_suppl) ◽  
pp. 169-169 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kathrin Milbury ◽  
Chanyi Yang ◽  
Zhongxing X. Liao ◽  
Anne S. Tsao ◽  
Eduardo Bruera

169 Background: Attachment style is a complex behavioral control system rooted in neurophysiological processes which guides a person’s ability to elicit and respond to emotional closeness in an intimate relationship. Patients with high attachment anxiety and/or avoidance may engage in interpersonal behaviors that exacerbate their stress response and perhaps symptom burden. We hypothesized that, while patients’ insecure attachment is associated with increased symptom burden, partners’ positive relationship behaviors may protect against this association. Methods: Patients with metastatic NSCLC and their partners completed cross-sectional surveys assessing attachment (ECR) and emotional closeness during cancer-related discusssions (PAIR). Patients completed the MDASI to measure cancer-related symptoms. We used multi-level modeling for the dyadic analyses. Results: 54 patients (51% female; 80% White; µ age = 65 yrs) and their partners (51% female; 68% White; µ age = 64 years; µ relationship length = 27 years) participated. Patients with high attachment avoidance reported significantly higher cancer symptoms compared to those with secure attachment (MDASI µ’s: 2.14 vs .21, respectively; P<.05). Cancer symptoms were also significantly higher for patients whose partners reported low compared to high closeness during cancer-related discussions (MDASI µ’s: 1.08 vs .42, respectively; P<.05). In fact, there was a significant interaction between partners’ perceptions of closeness and patients’ attachment avoidance (P<.01) so that only patients with high avoidance reported significantly greater symptom burden if their partners reported low closeness (high avoidance and low closeness: MDASI µ = 2.73; high avoidance and high closeness: MDASI µ = 1.32). Conclusions: Patients’ attachment avoidance is significantly associated with their symptom burden. Partners who are able to maintain closeness during cancer-related discussions may protect patients with high attachment avoidance from experiencing increased symptom burden. Teaching partners of patients with insecure attachment to stay emotionally connected during cancer-related discussions may be an important target for psychosocial interventions.


2019 ◽  
Vol 36 (5) ◽  
pp. 1476-1490
Author(s):  
Gery C. Karantzas ◽  
Nicolas Kambouropoulos

Attachment insecurity (i.e., levels of attachment anxiety and avoidance) is associated with interpersonal violence and aggression. However, evidence suggests that the associations are more consistent for attachment anxiety than for attachment avoidance. This raises questions as to whether there are particular moderators that may help to explain the lack of consistency in findings for attachment avoidance. In this article, we focus on a novel moderator regarding the association between attachment avoidance and aggression. Drawing on attachment theory, the aggression literature, and research into systems of threat detection, we suggest that the association between attachment avoidance and aggression may reflect a defensive fight (DF) response in situations of high relationship threat. Across two studies (Study 1, a self-report cross-sectional design; N = 128; Study 2, a cross-sectional experimental design, N = 126), we tested the extent that DF moderated the association between attachment avoidance and aggression under perceived relationship threat. In line with our suggestion, a three-way interaction was found across both studies between attachment avoidance, relationship threat, and DF. The findings have important theoretical and practical implications for the study of interpersonal aggression from an attachment theory perspective.


2021 ◽  
pp. 106648072110000
Author(s):  
Dixie Meyer ◽  
Danielle Thomas ◽  
Haley Hawkins

Research shows pronoun use may be related to relationship factors. Our research invited 40 couples (adults mostly partnered for 2 or fewer years) to engage in a 15-min conversation after completing demographics, attachment, and relationship satisfaction measures. Romantic partners tended to use pronouns similarly. Attachment anxiety and avoidance were related to lower relationship satisfaction. Bivariate actor partner interdependence models showed when men used we pronouns, lower relationship satisfaction was reported in both partners. When men used I pronouns, women were more likely to use we pronouns. When men used you pronouns, women were more likely to use I pronouns and engage in more attachment avoidant behaviors. Findings suggest communication patterns may be interpreted differently by younger couples. Couples therapists may want to investigate communication patterns to create a new dialogue that increases relationship satisfaction and limits insecure attachment behaviors.


2018 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 01-07
Author(s):  
Alfred Eboh

Background: The hawking of wares by children has been a serious issue confronting the Nigerian society. Children hawk in some of the most horrible conditions conceivable, where they face a serious risk of injury, chronic illness, kidnapping, rape or death. Objective: The focus of this study was to assess the perceived effects of street hawking on the well-being of children in Anyigba, Dekina Local Government Area of Kogi State. Methods: The population of this study consists of parents of the street hawkers in Anyigba while cross-sectional survey design was used through the purposive sampling technique to choose the sample size of one hundred and sixty-two (162) respondents. The validated structured questionnaire and In-Depth Interviews (IDIs) served as the instruments for the data collection respectively. The hypotheses were tested using Chi-Square at a predetermined 0.05 level of significance. The quantitative data were analysed with the aid of the SPSS (version 20). Results: The results indicated among others that street hawking had significant social implications and physical consequences on children's moral behaviour as well as health status in the study area. Conclusion: The study, therefore, concluded that the government of Kogi State should carry out an enlightenment campaign through the media and religious institutions on the negative consequences of street hawking are recommended as panacea. Also, the child right act instrument and its implementation should be strengthened in order to curb street hawking in the study area.


Author(s):  
Jan Christoff Visagie ◽  
Michael M. Jones ◽  
Herman L. Linde

The South African workplace is confronted with many leadership challenges, specifically those relating to the employment relationship between subordinates and their supervisors. A high-quality relationship is essential, considering the work-family spillovers employees experience. Limited research has been conducted on the potential positive and negative consequences of the leader-member exchange (LMX) dyadic relationship. In this study, we used a cross-sectional research design, and drew an employee sample (N = 120) from a commuter transport engineering company. A five-point Likert scale was employed and statistical analyses were carried out using the SAS statistical program. We calculated Pearson correlation coefficients and used structural equation modelling to test the proposed conceptual model to indicate possible correlations between the different variables. The main finding of the study was that the nature of the LMX relationship quality in the relevant company appeared to be high and positively related to work-home enrichment but negatively related to work-home conflict and role overload. The article concludes by making a number of suggestions to respond to challenges.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sylvia Niehuis

Issues in applied survey research, including minimizing respondent burden to encourage survey completion and the increasing administration of questionnaires over smartphones, have intensified efforts to create short measures. We conducted two studies to examine the psychometric properties of single-item measures of four close-relationship variables: satisfaction, love, conflict, and commitment. Study 1 was longitudinal, surveying an initial sample of 121 college-age dating couples at three monthly phases. Romantic partners completed single- and multi-item measures of the four constructs, along with other variables, to examine test-retest reliability and convergent (single-item measures with their corresponding multi-item scales), concurrent, and predictive validity. Our single-item measures of satisfaction, love, and commitment exhibited impressive psychometric qualities, but our single-item conflict measure performed somewhat less strongly. Study 2, a cross-sectional online survey (n = 280; mainly through Facebook), showed strong convergent validity of the single-item measures, including a .60 correlation between single- and multi-item conflict measures.


2017 ◽  
Vol 30 (1) ◽  
pp. 111-122 ◽  
Author(s):  
Steve Buchheit ◽  
Marcus M. Doxey ◽  
Troy Pollard ◽  
Shane R. Stinson

ABSTRACT Multiple social science researchers claim that online data collection, mainly via Amazon's Mechanical Turk (MTurk), has revolutionized the behavioral sciences (Gureckis et al. 2016; Litman, Robinson, and Abberbock 2017). While MTurk-based research has grown exponentially in recent years (Chandler and Shapiro 2016), reasonable concerns have been raised about online research participants' ability to proxy for traditional research participants (Chandler, Mueller, and Paolacci 2014). This paper reviews recent MTurk research and provides further guidance for recruiting samples of MTurk participants from populations of interest to behavioral accounting researchers. First, we provide guidance on the logistics of using MTurk and discuss the potential benefits offered by TurkPrime, a third-party service provider. Second, we discuss ways to overcome challenges related to targeted participant recruiting in an online environment. Finally, we offer suggestions for disclosures that authors may provide about their efforts to attract participants and analyze responses.


Author(s):  
Marilyn Watson

The origins of attachment theory and the work of John Bowlby and Mary Ainsworth are described. Four types of child–parent attachment relationships—secure, insecure/anxious, insecure/ambivalent, and insecure/disorganized—are outlined along with the ways each type might manifest itself in the classroom. A longitudinal study, conducted by Alan Sroufe and his colleagues, of the development and effects on learning and interpersonal relationships of different child–parent attachment relationships is described. Teachers too have a history of attachment relationships that can affect how they relate to their students. The chapter describes adult attachment and how one’s attachment history might, positively or negatively, affect one’s ability to build positive, nurturing relationships with students. Specific examples of ways teachers can offset the negative effects of a student’s or their own history of insecure attachment are described.


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