Browsing by Author "Deol, Gunleen"
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Item Links Between Maternal Depressive Symptoms, Maternal Empathy, and Responses to Children’s Negative Emotions(2021) Trujillo, Amanda; Deol, Gunleen; Straske, Davis; Fitter, Megan; Cassidy, JudeThe link between maternal depressive symptoms and negative socio-emotional child outcomes is well supported (e.g., Connell & Goodman, 2002; Dittrich et al., 2020; Goodman et al., 2011). However, prior research has not examined links between maternal empathy or mental health and mothers’ responses to child distress. The current study examines the association between maternal depressive symptoms and responses to children's negative emotions, with maternal empathy as a mediator. We hypothesize that mothers’ empathy will mediate the relation between maternal depressive symptoms and responses to children’s negative emotions, such that greater depressive symptoms will predict less empathy, which, in turn, will predict more unsupportive and fewer supportive responses to children’s negative emotions. Participants (N = 80) were mothers (47.6% white, 21.0% African American, 6.7% Asian/Pacific Islander, 10.5% Hispanic, 14.3% other and missing) and their children (M age = 4.5 years; 40.0% male, 49.5% female, 10.5% missing) from a two-part study with a 2-week interval between sessions. The indirect effects of maternal depressive symptoms on unsupportive responses (indirect effect = 0.001, [-.002, .004]) and supportive responses (indirect effect = .000, [-.002, .002]) through maternal empathy were not significant. However, there was a significant direct effect of maternal depressive symptoms on unsupportive responses (b = .028, p = .002) and a marginally significant direct effect of maternal depression on supportive responses (b = -.014, p = .089). Although we did not find a link between depressive symptoms and empathy, we found links between empathy and two subscales of unsupportive responses (maternal distress and punitive responses), and a marginally significant link between empathy and a subscale of supportive responses (problem-focused reactions). These findings suggest that parenting interventions targeting mothers with elevated depressive symptoms should aim to enhance maternal empathy to decrease unsupportive responses and increase supportive responses to children’s negative emotions.Item The Role of Attachment Style on Adolescent Risky Sexual Behavior(2020) Deol, Gunleen; Flamholz, Mollie; Fitter, Megan; Straske, Davis; Cassidy, JudeInsecure attachment in adolescents is often linked to risky sexual behavior (i.e. behavior that increases one’s chances of contracting sexually transmitted infections or experiencing unintended pregnancies; Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2010). The current study examines associations between anxious and avoidant attachment styles and risky sexual behavior, while also examining gender as a moderator. We hypothesized that in adolescents, attachment anxiety would predict riskier sexual behavior, and this effect would be stronger in girls than boys. We also hypothesized that an avoidant attachment style would predict less risky sexual behavior, and this effect would be stronger for girls than boys. Participants (N = 277) were from year 5 of an ongoing longitudinal study (Evans et al., 2018). Participants were 12-17 years old and 44.7% female, 55.3% male, 49.3% Caucasian, 50.7% non-Caucasian. Results suggest the importance of attachment style in predicting adolescents’ risky sexual behavior. Avoidant individuals were found to engage in a significant amount of sexual risk-taking (β = .206, p = .014), and this effect was marginally stronger for girls (β= .337 p = .003). Anxious individuals were found to engage in little sexual risk-taking (β = -.287, p =.001). Both main effects were the opposite of what we hypothesized. These findings shed light on adolescents who are at a higher risk for participating in risky sexual behaviors and have implications for attachment interventions.Item Young Adolescents' Early Relationship Satisfaction and Motivations for Dating: Links to Attachment to Parents(2022-04) Trujillo, Amanda; Fitter, Megan; Straske, Martha D.; Knoll, Sarah; Deol, Gunleen; Cassidy, JudeBACKGROUND: Attachment theory claims that the quality of early attachment relationships influences experiences in later relationships. Indeed, research indicates that positive relationships with parents relate to positive romantic relationship outcomes in mid-adolescence (Roisman et al., 2005), late adolescence (Auslander et al., 2009), and adulthood (Dinero et al., 2008). Further, early insecurity with parents predicts later insecurity with romantic partners (Furman & Collibee, 2018). However, no research has examined how insecurity with parents relates to young adolescents’ romantic relationship satisfaction or to motivations for entering relationships. Early negative dating experiences could contribute to a cascade leading to negative experiences in later relationships, making it essential to examine origins of adolescents’ early dating experiences. STUDY AIMS: We aimed to examine the role of young adolescents’ attachment insecurity with parents in predicting adolescents’ relationship satisfaction and motivations for dating by testing two hypotheses: 1) Attachment avoidance (discomfort with closeness) with mothers and fathers will relate to adolescents’ lower satisfaction in romantic relationships; 2) Attachment avoidance with mothers and fathers will relate to adolescents being motivated to date for external reasons (e.g., “because my friends told me I should date them”) as opposed to internal reasons (e.g., “because I liked spending time with them”). We also explored the role of attachment anxiety (fear of abandonment); however, we had no hypotheses due to the low prevalence of anxiety in previous research with adolescents (Hünefeldt et al., 2013) and in the present sample. METHOD: 8th graders (N = 109, Mage = 13.48) rated their attachment avoidance and anxiety with their mothers and fathers (Relationship Structures Questionnaire; ECR-RS; Fraley et al., 2011) on a 7-pt scale. Adolescents also rated how happy they were in their “most serious relationship” on a 5-pt scale and rated different motivations for entering this relationship on a 7-pt scale (Early Adolescent Romantic Relationships Questionnaire; EARQ; Fitter, 2020). RESULTS: Ordinal logistic and multiple linear regression analyses were conducted in R (R Core Team, 2013). Avoidance with mothers and with fathers (marginally) related to lower odds of adolescents being happy in their relationships (mothers, OR = 0.75, 95% CI [0.57, 0.98], p = .03, fathers, OR = 0.81, 95% CI [0.63, 1.03], p = .09). Avoidance with mothers and with fathers (marginally) related to greater endorsement of deciding to date someone because “my friends told me I should date them” (mothers, ß = 0.25, 95% CI [0.05, 0.44], p = 0.01, fathers, ß = 0.19, 95% CI [-0.01, .040], p = 0.06) and exploratory analyses demonstrated a similar pattern for attachment anxiety (mothers, ß = 0.17, 95% CI [-0.03, 0.37], p = 0.096, fathers, ß = 0.26, 95% CI [0.06, 0.46], p =0.01). DISCUSSION: Results indicate that insecurity with parents relates to young adolescents’ lower romantic relationship satisfaction and greater endorsement of peer-pressure motivating their dating choices. Discussion focuses on possible cascading effects of negative parent-adolescent relationships and the role of dating motivations and poor partner selection in this cascade.