Peer /partner attachment and emotion regulation as transmission mechanisms of the relationship between perceived parental attachment and dysphoric mood

This thesis examines the transmission mechanisms whereby the quality of one's childhood attachment relationships influence one's mood and adjustment later in life. One possibility is that emotion regulation abilities are learned in the context of the parental attachment relationship, whereby a better attachment results in a better ability to regulate emotion. A second possibility is that early parental attachment provides the framework for later attachment relationships with peers and partners, through cognitive working models (Kobak & Sceery, 1988). This thesis explores both emotion regulation and peer/partner attachment as mediators of the relationship between perceived parental attachment and dysphoric mood through two empirical studies.;The first study included 155 Introductory Psychology students and involved self-report measures. The results of structural equation modeling in the first study revealed that indeed, emotion regulation mediated the relationship between perceived parental attachment and dysphoric mood. In addition, peer/partner attachment also mediated the relationship between perceived parental attachment and dysphoric mood. However, the model was invalid when both emotion regulation and peer/partner attachment were tested together as predictors of dysphoric mood.;The second study included 216 Introductory Psychology students, and included three alternate measures of emotion regulation: emotion regulation strategies, the expectancy to regulate emotion, and one experimental measure based on emotion regulation following a sad mood induction.;The results of study two suggest that different conceptualizations of emotion regulation have different relationships with perceived parental attachment, peer/partner attachment and dysphoric mood. The strongest transmission mechanism was peer/partner attachment. In contrast, some self-reported aspects of emotion regulation had a more indirect role, functioning as a transmission mechanism from perceived parental attachment to peer/partner attachment, which then predicts dysphoric mood.;This research is further refining the current research that identifies perceived parental attachment and emotion regulation as predictors of adjustment and suggests that these relationships are mediated by peer/partner attachment.