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The Association of Insecure Attachment on Physical and Psychological Dating Abuse: A Longitudinal Study on Young Adult Romantic Relationships During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Dongarra, Marissa
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=csu1689337166763694

Abstract Details

2023, Master of Arts in Psychology, Cleveland State University, College of Sciences and Health Professions.
The COVID-19 pandemic has significantly impacted the population’s health and well-being. Specifically, young adults are vulnerable because they are susceptible to mental health disorders (Arnett et al., 2014). One area in particular that may affect mental health is romantic relationships. Previous literature has shown increased difficulties and conflict (Luetke et al., 2020), and increased withdrawal and hostility (Pietromonaco & Overall, 2022) in romantic relationships during the pandemic. These findings suggest that relationship functioning, such as attachment and dating abuse, may be impacted from COVID-19. Although literature has linked attachment and dating abuse, it is unclear how these are associated during times of stress, such as the pandemic. The current study sets out to examine how the COVID-19 pandemic may have altered young adult romantic relationships, specifically in the areas of romantic attachment and dating abuse. According to Bowlby’s (1969) theory on attachment, attachment style should be stable over time. However, previous literature has shown that stressful life events may be predictors of attachment instability (McConnel & Moss, 2011). Further research has shown that dating abuse perpetration and subsequent victimization has increased during the pandemic (Agüero, 2021, Lyons & Brewer, 2021). The present study aimed to examine the stability of attachment (anxious and avoidant) and physical and psychological dating abuse during times of stress due to the COVID-19 pandemic, while also exploring the association between the changes of attachment and dating abuse. Results showed that avoidant attachment was stable across waves, however anxious attachment had small stability. Additionally, results showed that physical dating abuse perpetration and victimization had medium stability from wave 1 and 2. Lastly, psychological dating abuse perpetration had medium stability, while victimization had small stability. Further findings demonstrated that only the changes in anxious attachment significantly predicted the changes in physical dating abuse victimization. These results suggest that future interventions should focus on coping with increased stress while also accounting for attachment related behaviors. Interventions should aim to increase attachment security as a way to decrease conflict in a relationship.
Elizabeth Goncy (Committee Chair)
Kathleen Reardon (Committee Member)
Ilya Yaroslavsky (Committee Member)
Clinical Psychology
Young Adulthood; Romantic Relationships; Dating Abuse; Physical Dating Abuse; Psychological Dating Abuse; Insecure Attachment; Anxious Attachment; Avoidant Attachment; COVID-19; Pandemic

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Citations

  • Dongarra, M. (2023). The Association of Insecure Attachment on Physical and Psychological Dating Abuse: A Longitudinal Study on Young Adult Romantic Relationships During the COVID-19 Pandemic [Master's thesis, Cleveland State University]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=csu1689337166763694

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Dongarra, Marissa. The Association of Insecure Attachment on Physical and Psychological Dating Abuse: A Longitudinal Study on Young Adult Romantic Relationships During the COVID-19 Pandemic. 2023. Cleveland State University, Master's thesis. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=csu1689337166763694.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Dongarra, Marissa. "The Association of Insecure Attachment on Physical and Psychological Dating Abuse: A Longitudinal Study on Young Adult Romantic Relationships During the COVID-19 Pandemic." Master's thesis, Cleveland State University, 2023. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=csu1689337166763694

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

csu1689337166763694
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© 2023, some rights reserved.Creative Commons License The Association of Insecure Attachment on Physical and Psychological Dating Abuse: A Longitudinal Study on Young Adult Romantic Relationships During the COVID-19 Pandemic by Marissa Dongarra is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License. Based on a work at etd.ohiolink.edu.
This open access ETD is published by Cleveland State University and OhioLINK.