Relationship Attitudes and Conflict Resolution Styles of Adult Children of Divorce

Date of Award

2003

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Bachelors

Department

Social Sciences

First Advisor

Barton, Michelle

Keywords

Divorce, Parental Conflict, Relationship Attitudes

Area of Concentration

Psychology

Abstract

This study examined how the variables of parental conflict level and parental marital status influenced participants' relationship attitudes and conflict resolution styles. Previous research has indicated that adult children of divorce are more likely to divorce themselves than adult children of intact families. Past research suggesting that adult children of divorce might form different relationship attitudes and conflict resolution styles than adult children of intact families, and that these differences may be mediated by parental conflict level, led to the formation of three hypotheses: 1) Children of high conflict parents will report lower scores of relational esteem and higher scores of relational depression than children of low conflict parents. 2) A significant interaction between the variables of parental marital status and parental conflict level was expected, such that participants of high conflict, divorced parents will demonstrate the highest scores for relational depression and the lowest scores for relational esteem relative to the remaining groups. 3) A significant interaction between parental marital status and parental conflict level was expected, such that preferences for an avoiding conflict resolution style would remain stable across parental conflict levels for both married groups, but would be significantly higher for the low conflict divorced group than the high conflict divorced group. Participants were 86 college-aged, unmarried young adults of divorced and intact households. Results did not support these three hypotheses. Results indicated that participants of high conflict married parents demonstrated the most negative relationship attitudes, and that participants of low conflict divorced parents demonstrated higher preferences for an avoiding conflict resolution style than participants of high conflict divorced parents. Implications of these results and directions for future research are discussed.

Rights

This bibliographic record is available under the Creative Commons CC0 public domain dedication. The New College of Florida, as creator of this bibliographic record, has waived all rights to it worldwide under copyright law, including all related and neighboring rights, to the extent allowed by law.

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