Attachment Patterns, Mourning Reactions, and Dysfunctional Romantic Relationship Beliefs among Young Adults with and without Early Parental Loss

Ali Varol,Sibel Akmehmet-Şekerler,Deniz Albayrak-Kaymak,Marc A Markell

doi:10.52597/buje.994857

Abstract

The attachment patterns, mourning reactions and dysfunctional romantic relationship beliefs of young adults were examined in relation to early parental loss experience. Participants included 423 students at a public university in İstanbul. An online survey package was used in data collection. Analyses indicated no attachment pattern difference by loss status. For the early parental loss group, the dismissing attachment pattern and dysfunctional romantic relationship beliefs; and for the no loss group, preoccupied attachment pattern and dysfunctional romantic relationship beliefs had positive relations. Participants with dismissing attachment patterns and high levels of mourning had more dysfunctional romantic relationship beliefs. Behavioral and physical types were the most; emotional and cognitive types were the least common mourning reactions.

Highlights

In the light of the literature reviewed above, this study aimed to investigate whether attachment patterns of young adults differ depending on the presence or absence of early parent loss; whether the relationship between attachment patterns and dysfunctional romantic relationship beliefs differ depending on the presence or absence of early parent loss; whether the mourning level influences the relationship between attachment pattern and romantic relationship beliefs; and the most common styles of mourning among the bereaved young adults
Through repeated measures of multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA), differences between the loss and no loss groups were analyzed for four dependent variables as obtained from the four factorial scores of the Relationships Scales Questionnaire (RSQ) that measured attachment patterns of secure, preoccupied, dismissing, and fearful types
Prior research suggested that negative life events, like early parental loss, may change individuals’ attachment patterns (Waters et al, 2000)

Summary

Introduction

Abrams (2013) described parental loss as “something that stays with you and shapes you for the rest of your life; it becomes a condition of your existence, like having blue eyes or black hair” Grief counselors witness that loss of a loved one is not an experience to get over or to move on, but an experience to keep living by. Understanding the impact of early parental loss on young adults is the main interest of this study. Various loss-related terms that include bereavement, grief and mourning have been used in the related literature. Includes a brief review of these loss-related terms and the other terms that are believed to relate to loss

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