Young women’s comfort with closeness after parental divorce: Does a close relationship with dad make a difference? What promotes resiliency?

dc.contributor.authorRegev, Rotem
dc.contributor.supervisorEhrenberg, Marion
dc.date.accessioned2014-08-25T22:33:15Z
dc.date.available2014-08-25T22:33:15Z
dc.date.copyright2014en_US
dc.date.issued2014-08-25
dc.degree.departmentDepartment of Psychology
dc.degree.levelDoctor of Philosophy Ph.D.en_US
dc.description.abstractStudy 1 examined the role closeness to father plays in the developmental-like process associating family form (divorced/non-divorced) with later young adulthood attachment style in a sample of 525 men and women. Participants reported their closeness to father while growing up and current comfort with closeness. As expected, closeness to father fully mediated the association between family form and comfort with closeness for both men and women, but more strongly for women. The association between family form and comfort with closeness was only evident for women; women who experienced parental divorce reported feeling less comfortable with closeness in relationships. Contrary to expectation, the mediating role of closeness to father in the association between family and form and comfort with closeness was not moderated by gender. The key role fathers may play in fostering their male and female children’s later attachment style in divorced and nondivorced families, as well as the attenuated role of gender in explaining young adults’ attachment style, are discussed. Study 2 examined the role of dyadic and family environment factors which are implicated in young adults’ insecure attachment in predicting relational resilience. Relationally resilient women were defined as women who experienced parental divorce yet experience comfort with closeness. Ninety-three women reported on the level of overt and subtle conflict in their families-of- origin, the effectiveness of their parents’ coparenting, and their closeness to father. Hierarchical logistic regression analyses predicted membership in the relationally resilient group based on these dyadic and family environment predictors. As expected, results demonstrate that lower pre-divorce subtle and overt conflict; higher levels of coparenting before separation, during separation, and after separation; and closeness to father while growing up all predicted membership in the relationally resilient group. However, no one variable uniquely predicted membership in the relationally resilient group. Study 2’s results are translated to preventative implications at the family, parental, dyadic and individual levels. Final remarks integrating the results of both studies follow.en_US
dc.description.scholarlevelGraduateen_US
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/1828/5596
dc.languageEnglisheng
dc.language.isoenen_US
dc.rights.tempAvailable to the World Wide Weben_US
dc.rights.urihttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/2.5/ca/*
dc.subjectdivorceen_US
dc.subjectseparationen_US
dc.subjectyoung adultsen_US
dc.subjectfatheren_US
dc.subjectdaughteren_US
dc.subjectattachmenten_US
dc.subjectcomfort with closenessen_US
dc.subjectavoidanten_US
dc.subjectwomenen_US
dc.subjectparent-child relationshipen_US
dc.titleYoung women’s comfort with closeness after parental divorce: Does a close relationship with dad make a difference? What promotes resiliency?en_US
dc.typeThesisen_US

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