Alison Rossi

Date Approved

8-9-2011

Embargo Period

3-3-2020

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

M.A. School Psychology-Professional School Psychology

Department

Educational Services, Administration, and Higher Education

College

College of Education

Advisor

Klanderman, John

Committee Member 1

Dihoff, Roberta

Subject(s)

Attachment behavior; Adult children of divorced parents

Disciplines

Child Psychology | Student Counseling and Personnel Services

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to examine the possible role family structure plays on adult attachment orientation. Eighty-six students enrolled in introductory level psychology courses at Rowan University, Glassboro, New Jersey, participated in this study. Indicated in previous studies as valid to measure experiences in romantic relationships, the personality traits of attachment-related Anxiety and attachment-related Avoidance were analyzed by the Experiences in Close Relationships-Revised questionnaire (ECR-R). Independent t-Tests were used to determine if differences exist in young-adult participants of both the intact-families (n=66) or divorced-families (n=20) groups, as particularly measured by the attachment-related Anxiety and attachment-related Avoidance scales of the ECR-R. The researcher hypothesized that there would be a significant difference in the relationship satisfaction scores between the participants of intact and divorced families in the areas of attachment-related Anxiety and attachment-related Avoidance. Results indicated that there was no significant difference in scores on either scale between students whose parents were married and those whose parents were divorced, where students whose parents were married did not score significantly higher than students whose parents were divorced.

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