Role of Family and Culture in Adult Relationships

Study Purpose and History

This study emerged directly from observations made by students in my statistics and research methods classes. My research interests are in adult interpersonal relationships and, for many years, we have collected data on adult relationships to use as a common data base for statistical analysis and class discussion. We use Attachment Theory as outlined by John Bowlby to inform our statistical analysis and interpretation of findings. Often students would remark that the existing measures of adult attachment do not seem to reflect cultural differences in definitions of relationships, emotional expression, and views of self and other. To learn more about their concerns, we reviewed the literature and found that there is almost no cross-cultural research on adult attachment relationships. This study is an attempt to begin to address this omission in the literature. From this study, we hope to learn more about how family and culture, through their impact on emotional expression and self-definition, influence our beliefs and behavior in important adult relationships.

Study Staff

We have a dedicated team of research assistants in the psychology department who worked together to develop the study questionnaire. They will also play a central role in data collection and analysis. This project would not be possible without their assistance.

Samuel Y. Kim	Emory College
Shellie-Anne Levy	Emory College

Lottery

We are trying to survey a fairly large sample. As such, we do not have the resources to pay participants for completing the survey. As a "thank you" for completing the questionnaire, we are offering all participants the chance to be a part of a lottery for one of ten gift certificates from the campus bookstore. Gift certificates range from $10 to $50 [$10 (4); $15 (3); $25 (2); $50 (1)]. There is a place at the end of the questionnaire to let us know if you would like to participate in the drawing. The drawing will be conducted when the study is complete.

Study Results

As we analyze the data, we will periodically post findings in this space. Because the survey is anonymous, we will not be able to mail study findings. We will also list any publications in this space.

Preliminary Findings

This past study year was devoted to a series of confirmatory factor analyses of the structure of the key instruments used in the study. A primary goal of the study is to examine whether cultural background influences important interpersonal relationships in adulthood and the instruments used in this area of psychology have never been validated with ethnic minority populations. Our first step was to conduct a series of statistical analyses that would confirm whether the factor structure observed in the original validation of the key instruments used in the study were comparable across ethnic groups.

The data analysis revealed a comparable factor structure across students from a European/dominant cultural background and students from ethnic minority backgrounds. We did not have sufficient numbers of college students from other backgrounds to conduct separate analyses for each ethnic/cultural group. We hope to collect additional data to allow separate analyses for African-American, Carribean, Latino/Latina, and Asian student groups.

This next phase of the study is designed to collect more data to allow us to look more closely at different cultural groups.

Thank you for your interest in our study. If you have any questions about this research, please feel free to contact me at nbliwis@emory.edu