PHD, Kent State University, 2021, College of Arts and Sciences / Department of Psychological Sciences

Friendships are among the most important interpersonal relationships in emerging adulthood. Indeed, high-quality friendships have been linked to increased happiness (Demir et al., 2015) and better adjustment (Barry et al., 2016). The mechanisms that might predict these high-quality friendship experiences are not yet well-established, however. Buhrmester et al. (1988) proposed five domains of interpersonal competence (conflict management; emotional support provision; initiation; self-assertion; self-disclosure); more recent literature has identified forgiveness and gratitude as possible additional interpersonal competencies that might influence close peer relationships (see Algoe, 2012; Worthington et al., 2017). The current study examines the measurement of these seven proposed interpersonal competencies and whether they are related to emerging adults' friendship quality experiences using both in-lab (global) measures and nightly report (daily) measures. Results provide preliminary evidence suggesting that measures of Buhrmester et al.'s (1988) interpersonal competency domains, and the two additional domains of forgiveness and gratitude, are reliable, valid, and are somewhat distinct. Additionally, each of the domains of interpersonal competence was found to be relevant for the quality of emerging adults' friendship experiences, though the relevance of each domain appears to vary depending on whether one is interested in predicting positive or negative friendship experiences, and whether one examines these experiences through global reports or reports of daily experiences.

Committee: Kathryn Kerns (Advisor); Judith Gere (Committee Co-Chair); Angela Neal-Barnett (Committee Member); Nichole Egbert (Committee Member); Molly Merryman (Committee Member) Subjects: Psychology

Doctor of Philosophy, University of Akron, 2018, Marriage and Family Counseling/Therapy

ABSTRACT This dissertation study, which utilized 2015 archival evaluation data on the Nurtured Heart Approach, had two overarching study goals. The first goal was to determine if there were statistically significant pretest to posttest changes in parenting confidence, use of appropriate verbal discipline, and parent perceptions of child interpersonal strengths among 219 parents with children, ages 5 to 8, who participated in the NHA intervention in 2015. To address the first study goal, a series of repeated-measures analyses of variance (ANOVA) were conducted. The second study goal was to determine if parenting confidence, use of appropriate verbal discipline, and parent perceptions of child interpersonal strengths posttest mean scores were significantly different between 31 NHA intervention and 31 control parents, matched on pretest scores, parent gender, and child age (there were not enough intervention parents to match on child gender). The second study goal was addressed by conducting between-within (mixed) ANOVAs. Due to the relatively large number of analyses for hypothesis testing, the significance was set at p < .017, based on a Bonferroni correction. Results from the repeated-measures ANOVAs showed that the 219 NHA intervention parents had significant pretest-to-posttest increases in parenting confidence, use of appropriate verbal discipline, and perceptions of child interpersonal strengths. Results from the between-within (mixed) ANOVAs showed that NHA intervention parents had significantly higher use of appropriate verbal discipline from baseline to post-intervention; this significant change was not found for the group of control parents. NHA intervention parents did not, however, have significantly higher parenting confidence or perceptions of child interpersonal strengths posttest scores as compared to the control group of parents. Implications of the study are discussed.

Committee: Karin B. Jordan PhD (Committee Chair); Kristin L. Koskey PhD (Committee Member) Subjects: Psychology; Social Psychology; Social Work; Therapy

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 1986, Graduate School

Committee: Not Provided (Other) Subjects: Mass Communications

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 1984, Graduate School

Committee: Not Provided (Other) Subjects: Education