The relationship between parental marital instability and conflict, adult attachment styles, and college students' intimate relationships

This study examined the links among perception of interparental conflict, parental divorce, adult attachment traits, and college students' intimate relationships. Eighty-five dating couples were videotaped discussing a relationship problem, and each member of the dyad completed questionnaires regarding (1) demographic information, (2) memories of perceived interparental conflict via the Children's Perception of Interparental Conflict scale, (3) attachment traits via the Adult Attachment Questionnaire, and (4) other personality traits via the NEO Five-Factor Inventory. In addition to completing the attachment traits and personality traits questionnaires with respect to themselves, each member of the dyad completed these questionnaires with respect to their partners.;Based on previous research, it was predicted that memories of perceived interparental conflict would be a more significant factor than parental divorce on young adults' romantic relationships. Perceived interparental conflict was predicted to relate to college students' attachment traits, which in turn would influence their behavior in intimate relationships. A significant association was found between memories of perceived interparental conflict and insecure adult attachment indices for college women but not for college men. The study also found that college men who were more avoidantly attached were more likely to be stressed during the relationship discussion. Overall though, neither parental divorce nor perceived interparental conflict, via adult attachment index, were predictors of behavior in intimate relationships for either college men or college women. Limitations of methodology are discussed and directions for future research are suggested.