Providing Incarcerated Youth With A Community Of Their Peers, Providing Resources, And Modeling Healthy Attachment May Lead To Prosocial Behaviors, Emilee Brnusak

University Honors Theses

This thesis examines the connection between gang activity and attachment style. A summary of literature suggests that childhood attachment injuries lead to antisocial, maladaptive relationships and neurological changes that impact executive functioning and emotional regulation. These factors leave youth at higher risk of gang membership. This thesis then explores how an outreach experience at the MacLaren Youth Correctional Facility inspired a large-scale intervention called Resources for Attachment-injured Youth (RAY) that could be implemented in youth prisons across the country.

The Effects Of Attachment Insecurity And Cognitive Flexibility On Mentalization In Psychotherapists, Michael Scharf

Selected Full-Text Dissertations 2020-

The wounded healer concept suggests that one's therapeutic ability is rooted in one's own experiences of pain and suffering. The present study used this concept as a theoretical framework from which to explore issues related to therapist insecure attachment and therapist skill. It examined the role of therapist cognitive flexibility in the relationship between therapist attachment insecurity and therapist mentalization capacity. Participants were 158 therapists from different clinical fields of study and varying levels of clinical experience who completed an online protocol. Results indicated that avoidant attachment negatively predicted mentalization capacity, validating in a therapist sample what previous studies have …

Bird’S Nest Drawing: Exploring The Attachment Of Left-Behind Children In China, Ziyi Su

Expressive Therapies Dissertations

To explore the attachment of left-behind children (LBC), this mixed-methods study analyzed the Bird’s Nest Drawings (BND) and narratives from 117 fourth graders from Shaanxi and Gansu, China. Overall, the BND of LBC showed less secure-attachment features. These distinctions can be seen in several pictorial elements, and manifest differently across gender groups and rural versus urban groups. Drawings and narratives revealed eight underlying themes of absence, longing, and support from parent and peer attachment. Children creatively communicated complex emotions and attachment experiences through the metaphor of the bird’s nest, ranging from abandonment, loneliness, and vulnerability, to coping, hope, and resilience. …

The Impact Of Human Attachment To A Pet Bird On Psychological Well-Being, Kathryn Marie Trautann

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Few studies have addressed human attachment to a pet bird and psychological well-being, and the research that has been conducted is largely anecdotal and anthropomorphic perspectives on human relationships with birds. In this quantitative study, the relationships between humans and their birds were explored using Bowlby's attachment theory and Fredrickson and Losada's broaden and build theory. The study consisted of a randomized experiment, in which individuals were randomly assigned to either an attachment (n = 81) or detachment (n = 88) group. The security priming manipulation was used to prime the groups. The attachment group was asked to list things …

Behavioral Indicators Of Reflective Functioning In Mother-Child Dyadic Interactions, Rachel Clingensmith

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Positive parenting practices and secure attachments are consistently linked to healthy child outcomes (Ainsworth & Bowlby, 1991; Waters et al., 2000). Research on cognitive processes that scaffold parental behaviors which contribute to secure attachment is an essential contribution to the literature, particularly given the potential for early intervention with at-risk families. Parental Reflective Functioning (PRF) is a construct of increasing interest which has been linked to secure attachments and positive child outcomes, with one commonly used self-report measure of PRF being the Parental Reflective Functioning Questionnaire (PRFQ; Camoirano, 2017; Clingensmith, 2021; Luyten et al., 2017). As such, the purpose of …

Helping Your Child Manage Anxiety: A Parent Education Workshop, Clarissa Aglaén Gallardo

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

Anxiety has become one of the most common mental health disorders in young children, and it has been shown to have a significant impact on their development. Anxiety can make a child more susceptible to a number of negative effects, including a weakened immune system, developing “negative” habits such as nail biting, increased proneness to anger or crying, as well as difficulties in learning and retaining information. Conversely, when parents/caregivers can prevent or decrease anxiety in their children, children can better regulate their emotions, have more successful relationships, take more risks, and cope better with challenges. The purpose of this …

Development And Validation Of The Employee-Supervisor Attachment Scale, Johnny Doherty

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

Attachment theory and its connection to the workplace, as well as leader-member exchange (LMX) research, is reviewed before discussing strategies used for developing and validating the Employee-Supervisor Attachment (E-SA) scale. Analyses focused on an internal and external validation strategy. Study 1 consisted of item revisions from the Experiences in Close Relationships-Short scale (ECR-S) and SME ratings to develop the E-SA scale as well as a preliminary Exploratory Factorial Analysis to verify factor structure. Likewise, Study 2 tested the retained items to confirm factor structure, within a new sample, before assessing regressions between E-SA and relevant outcome variables. Furthermore, this project …

Sports, Family, And Leadership In Youth: Impacts Of Family Environments And Sport Participation On Youth Leadership Development, Michael Stout

Theses and Graduate Projects

This study investigated the effects of family relationships/environment and sport participation on youth leadership development using the 2016 Minnesota Student Survey (MSS) questionnaire. Responses from 9^th and 11^th graders were used, resulting in 81,885 total participants between the ages of 13 and 19 for this archival, cross-sectional study. This study had two aims: One, to investigate the relationship between family relationships/environment and sport participation, and their impact on youth leadership skills and development; and two, to investigate whether participation in youth sports provides enough scaffolding to foster the development of youth leadership skills despite poor family relationships/environments. Scales …

Facilitating Attachment Through Therapeutic Rapport And Expressive Arts Therapy With Children Experiencing Complex Trauma: A Literature Review, Johanna Voeller

Expressive Therapies Capstone Theses

The aim of this capstone is to review the connection between therapeutic alliance and attachment with traumatized children supported by expressive arts in therapy and to the impact on therapeutic outcome. Within the therapeutic encounter is a potent opportunity to develop healthy attachment patterns that bridge into the client’s other relationships in their life. Complex trauma affects children physically and psychologically leaving lifelong consequences of interpersonal challenges. The impetus for study of this topic was curiosity centered on the impact of the therapeutic alliance as it relates to attachment, and therapeutic outcomes. Throughout the course of this literature review, the …

The Bonds Of Play: A Case Study Of Attachments In A Parent-Toddler Play Group For Latin American Immigrant Families In New York City, Adriana Bass

Child Development Theses

A child’s relationship to their caregivers is one of the most influential factors in their lifelong development. Early caregiving patterns form scripts that shape how a child understands and interacts with the world around them. These early attachment patterns inform parenting behaviors across generations, as individuals often parent their offspring in ways shaped by their own early experiences. Central to forming parent-child relationships is the concept of play. Play has value in supporting parent-child attachments as well as revealing existing relational patterns and caregiving behaviors. The current study examines the attachment relationships of families in a parent-toddler play group in …

Employee Perceptions Of Stressors At Work: An Attachment Perspective, Emma Josephine Naudet

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

The current study applied an attachment perspective to elucidate how individuals appraise stressors at work. Attachment theory proposes that individuals’ interactions with a caregiver shape their expectations and beliefs about the world, themselves, and others and predict how individuals behave. Attachment at work is a budding research topic because it informs the social aspect of work relationships, such as the leader-subordinate dyad. However, few studies have explored the potential of attachment security as a job resource. Our findings demonstrated strong support for our predictions about the relationship between transformational leadership, employee perceptions of demands and resources, and the potential explanatory …

The Effects Of Intimacy And Parental Bonding On The Psychological Well-Being Of University Aged Women, Samantha G. Delmage

Brescia Psychology Undergraduate Honours Theses

This study investigated whether students who had high perceived parental bonding and low fear of intimacy would have a more positive level of psychological well-being. Additionally, the study sought to determine any differences between a single parent household and a two parent household. The sample consisted of 93 female undergraduate students in University in London, Ontario. An independent t-test revealed there was no significant differences in bonding between a single parent household and a two parent household. A multiple regression analysis revealed that perceived parental bonding and fear of intimacy were significant predictors of psychological well-being. A significant positive correlation …

Integrating Dynamic And Cognitive Perspectives On Postpartum Depression In Mothers During The First Year After Birth, Sarah Altee Kalmenson Pinson

Selected Full-Text Dissertations 2020-

Postpartum Depression (PPD) is the most common complication of childbirth, impacting the development of children as well as the wellbeing of mothers and families. Several psychological factors have been found to be associated with PPD, including insecure attachment, self-criticism, dependency, and distorted beliefs about motherhood. However, attachment research has yielded conflicting findings regarding which attachment style is most associated with PPD. Additionally, dependency has been found to be either a protective or a risk factor for PPD in the perinatal population. Further, the cognitive research has not examined factors impacting distorted beliefs about motherhood. Finally, self-criticism, dependency, and distorted beliefs …

Attachment And Its Prediction Of Emotional-Social Intelligence (Esi) Of African American Females During Mid-To-Late Adolescence, Lauren N. Callahan

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Attachment and emotional-social intelligence (ESI) have been an area of study among scholars since attachment has been shown to impact important areas of psychosocial development. This study involved exploring attachment or the adolescent bonding experience, and its prediction of ESI of African American females during mid-to-late adolescence. Researchers have demonstrated there are ethnic differences in terms of attachment and ESI but have not established predictive relationships among African Americans. The purpose of this study was to examine attachment and its prediction of ESI of African American females between 15 and 18. Using a quantitative design, the Adolescent Attachment Questionnaire and …

The Makings Of Creativity And Empathy: Maps Of Maternal Representations, Anielle M. Fredman

Dissertations and Theses

ABSTRACT

The Makings of Creativity and Empathy: Maps of Maternal Representations

by

Anielle M. Fredman

Advisor: Sasha Rudenstine, Ph.D.

The present study investigates the relationship between maternal fantasy of the child and their relationship, and children’s unconscious processes. In addition, the study aims to ascertain the link between maternal representations and aspects of the child’s intrapsychic world, including ego functioning, object relations, and processes of separation-individuation.

Maternal fantasy was measured in an original way with a tripartite typology of Positive, Mixed-Complex, and Contradictory Representations, applied to the Parent Development Interview-Revised Short (Slade et al., 2004), adapted from the Working Model …

Origins Of Fear Of Intimacy: The Effects Of Parental Involvement And Attachment Style, Victoria M. Perez

Honors Undergraduate Theses

The present study explores the origins of fear of intimacy, specifically assessing parental involvement and attachment style. Correlations between each variable were analyzed and a mediation model was explored as well. Participants in this study (N = 372; mean age = 25.78; 86% female) completed scales to measure parental care, parental overprotection, attachment avoidance, attachment anxiety, and fear of intimacy. Data was analyzed to reveal correlational results that support the hypotheses. Negative correlations were found between parental care and attachment avoidance, attachment anxiety, and fear of intimacy. Parental overprotection was positively correlated with attachment avoidance, attachment anxiety, and fear of …

A Systematic Review On The Relationship Between Attachment Styles And Chronic Pain, Samantha M. Cohen

Theses and Dissertations

Chronic pain (CP), a leading cause of disability, is associated with addiction, physical and psychosocial impairment and tremendous financial burden. Childhood experiences contribute to the genesis of different attachment styles. Attachment theory offers a useful framework for the conceptualization of CP, with different attachment styles impacting the experience and clinical manifestations of CP. This systematic review aims to evaluate the relationship between attachment styles and CP, to investigate which attachment styles pose the greatest risk for CP, to examine how CP is expressed in the context of different attachment styles, and to gain insight regarding the treatment approach to CP. …

Attachment And Its Prediction Of Emotional-Social Intelligence (Esi) Of African American Females During Mid-To-Late Adolescence, Lauren N. Callahan

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Attachment and emotional-social intelligence (ESI) have been an area of study among scholars since attachment has been shown to impact important areas of psychosocial development. This study involved exploring attachment or the adolescent bonding experience, and its prediction of ESI of African American females during mid-to-late adolescence. Researchers have demonstrated there are ethnic differences in terms of attachment and ESI but have not established predictive relationships among African Americans. The purpose of this study was to examine attachment and its prediction of ESI of African American females between 15 and 18. Using a quantitative design, the Adolescent Attachment Questionnaire and …

Clinician Perceptions Of Female Sex Offender Treatment In Modern Society, Taylor J. Bryant

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Clinicians are starting to see a higher population of female sex offenders enrolled in their treatment facilities. Current research indicates that both society and clinical professionals struggle with viewing women as sex offenders due to gender stereotypes and minimization of sex crimes committed by women. The purpose of this qualitative study was to examine clinician perceptions of female sex offender treatment and how these perceptions may impact clinician engagement. The theoretical frameworks utilized in this study were the attachment theory and psychoanalytical theory. Data included clinician experiences with treating female sex offenders, exposure to professional trainings on this population, and …

An Exploration Of The Relation Between Psychological Functioning And Reactions To Global Climate Change For Late Adolescents In New York City, Emma Routhier

Dissertations and Theses

Climate change poses a potentially unique generational crisis, as it threatens the viability of the very world that the current adolescent generation stands to inherit. While some studies have begun to appreciate the specific experience of adolescents as it pertains to climate change, they attend to young people’s behavior or self-reported feelings. The present study aims to employ psychoanalytic constructs, with attention to the unconscious determinants of psychic life and behavior, in an empirical examination of this topic, and to introduce a level of sensitivity to the vicissitudes of the adolescent period that have not previously been addressed in the …

The Strong Families Program: Utility Of Telehealth Parenting Skills Psychoeducation, Grace C. Prosperi

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Externalizing behaviors in children are a common problem experienced by many parents. If untreated, externalizing behaviors are associated with more serious consequences (Hann, 2012). Parents of children with behavior issues also report higher levels of stress (Dumas et al., 2009). Parenting stress is related to lower life satisfaction for parents and increased negative outcomes for children living in the home. Parent training programs, incorporating attachment building and discipline strategies, combat childhood externalizing behaviors in clinical settings. While reducing childhood externalizing behaviors is the main aim of parent training, there are other benefits to gaining parenting skills such as increased familial …

Impact Of Immigration Parent-Child Separation Policies On Children’S Attachment Experiences, Daisy Casasnovas

Dissertations

This critical literature review (CRP) project explores the consequences of child-parent separation by deportation laws. Considering the number of Latinx immigrant families immigrating to the United States, this review focused on how the unexpected separation by deportation impacted immigrant families and how these separations affect their children’s development, attachment style, and overall well-being. The review explored the short- and long-term consequences for immigrant children and their families, including children who are U.S.-born and remain in the country without their parents. Results from the review indicate an extensive and significant impact on attachment style and overall developmental impairments. The unexpected separation …

Parental Attachment And Compassion As Predictors Of Distress Disclosure Among Young Adults, Ellie N. Wilde

Clinical Psychology Dissertations

Distress disclosure is associated with perceived social support, so it is important to understand what supports our ability to disclose distress. This study examined relationships between distress disclosure, fear of others’ compassion, parental attachment, self-compassion, and perceived social support among young adults. I expected young adults with stronger parental attachment security to report greater capacity for distress disclosure and that this relationship would be mediated by fear of others’ compassion. I expected trait self-compassion to moderate relationships between these variables on all paths of the mediation, such that higher self-compassion would reduce the adverse impact of insecure parental attachment on …

Toddler Characteristics And Attention, Lani A. Taylor

Research Psychology Theses

Abstract

Individual differences have become increasingly relevant when addressing variability across child development. Literature bears evidence that these differences may impact a toddler’s ability to respond to Joint Attention (JA). JA refers to a communicative gaze and pointing between a child and another individual. JA has been recognized as being a critical milestone, to the formation and cultivation of shared awareness and attention of an event or object. JA is a skill that is critical to the development of future language acquisition (Vaughan Van Hecke et al., 2007). The aim of this study is to measure whether child characteristics, such …

Impact Of Parental Substance Misuse On Attachment In Young Adults: A Qualitative Approach, Susan E. Hardman

Dissertations, 2020-current

This study examined the impact of parental substance misuse on young adult development and relationships by interviewing young adults about their experience being raised by a parent who misused substances. A qualitative design based on constructivist grounded theory and informed by constructs from attachment theory was used. Participants consisted of 10 young adults, ages 18-26, who endorsed being raised by a parent who misused substances. The interview questions developed for the study were informed by a measure of adult attachment. Analysis of the data included identification of emergent categories/themes as well as a priori constructs from attachment theory (safe haven, …

Exploring The Effects Of Witnessing Family Violence In Childhood Among South Asians In America, Chiroshri Bhattacharjee

Seton Hall University Dissertations and Theses (ETDs)

Incidents of domestic violence and its transgenerational impact within the South Asian community, although prevalent, are often dismissed as peripheral concerns due to various sociocultural and internalized psychological factors . This study explored the long-term effects of witnessing three types of interparental violence (psychological aggression, physical aggression, and injury) on participants’ self-esteem, attachment style, and conflict resolution abilities as adults. Cultural values conflict unique to the South Asian American community was used as a moderator to assess the relationship between participants’ self-esteem and degree of violence witnessed. Eighty-seven self-identified South Asian American women (age range = 20–40 years, M = …

The Antagonistic Tetrad And Romantic Attachment Styles, Kayli H. Wrenn

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Both attachment styles and personality traits are characterized by enduring patterns of inner experience and behaviors. There are four primary attachment styles: secure, anxious, avoidant, and disorganized. In adult romantic relationships, attachment styles are influenced by the attachment behavioral system, caregiving system, and sexual/reproductive system. In comparison, the Antagonistic Tetrad is a constellation of four overlapping but distinct personality constructs: Machiavellianism, grandiose narcissism, psychopathy, and everyday sadism. These four traits include interpersonal features such as a lack of empathy, aggressiveness, and manipulation. Using a regression-based approach, this research study examined the associations between the Antagonistic Tetrad, adult romantic attachment styles, …

What Makes A Good Relationship? Examining The Role Of Psychological Needs On Relationship Satisfaction Moderated By Attachment, Kristin Rutland

USC Aiken Psychology Theses

Objective: The current study examined the relative importance of psychological needs as predictors of relationship satisfaction and how differences across dimensions of adult attachment moderate these relationships. Through the examination of psychological needs, relationship satisfaction, and attachment questionnaires, it was predicted that psychological needs predict relationship satisfaction differently across the attachment spectrum, with attachment serving as a moderator of these associations.

Method: Data was collected from online crowd sourcing software, Amazon Mechanical Turk (Mturk). There were one hundred and fourteen participants, ranging from 18-78 years of age (M = 27.39, SD = 11.21), who were currently involved in a romantic …

Testing A Contextual Framework Of Intimate Partner Violence In Young Adults, Phoebe Tabb Hitson

Psychology Theses & Dissertations

Bell and Naugle (2008) proposed a comprehensive theoretical framework that includes multiple variables hypothesized to be involved in intimate partner violence (IPV) perpetration, including distal and proximal variables. The current study (1) assessed the extent to which childhood physical abuse victimization, interparental violence, insecure attachment, accepting beliefs about violence, sexism, stress, alcohol and marijuana use, relationship satisfaction, emotion regulation, and anger management were associated with physical IPV perpetration; (2) determined whether some of these variables influenced physical IPV perpetration more than others; (3) explored the mediation of distal variables by more proximal variables in predicting physical IPV perpetration; and (4) …

Measurement Invariance Of Relationship Intimacy And Attachment Across Hispanic And Non-Hispanic White College Women, Kristen N. Vitek

Psychology ETDs

The study of relationship intimacy and attachment has gained increasingly greater attention within the field. As such, researchers have developed numerous self-report measures of relationship intimacy and attachment. However, a majority of such measures have been developed and validated with White, Western populations, which calls into question the validity of such measures when used with minority populations. One way to establish validity of measures is to test for measurement invariance; namely, that the measures assess the same constructs across groups. The focus of this study was to test the measurement invariance of two commonly used measures of relationship intimacy, the …