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Emotion in Adoption Narratives: Links to Close Relationships in Emerging Adulthood

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dc.contributor.advisorHarold D. Grotevant
dc.contributor.authorGrant-Marsney, Holly A.
dc.contributor.departmentUniversity of Massachusetts Amherst
dc.date2024-03-27 17:05:27
dc.date.accessioned2024-04-26T15:37:42Z
dc.date.available2024-04-26T15:37:42Z
dc.date.issued2014
dc.date.submittedFebruary
dc.date.submitted2014
dc.description.abstractAn adopted person develops a narrative or story to help make sense of his or her adoption. This narrative provides a window into how the adoptee understands the role of adoption in his or her life and articulates feelings and thoughts about it. Adolescent and emerging adult adoptees’ data from the Minnesota-Texas Adoption Research Project (MTARP) were examined. MTARP longitudinally followed 190 adoptive kinship networks, with varying levels of openness in the adoption, from childhood to emerging adulthood. The current study sought to understand how emotion (affective valence and specific emotions), as identified in the adoption narratives during adolescence and emerging adulthood, related to qualities of their closest emerging adult relationships. It was expected that reflections of early relationships would impact the current evaluation of relationships. The emotions described in these narratives were used to predict relationship qualities (attachment related anxiety and avoidance, relationship satisfaction, and intimacy maturity). It was expected that more positive affect and less negative affect would predict higher levels of attachment security, intimacy, and relationship satisfaction. The change in affect over time (from adolescence to emerging adulthood) and average affect over time were also examined. Specific emotions of affect were explored and evaluated for their contribution to emerging adulthood relationship qualities. Results indicated associations of both negative and positive affect with attachment style in emerging adulthood. Findings of this study will help to assist research and practitioners understand the application of the adoption narrative in their work, and the translation of adoptive identity into relationship concepts.
dc.description.degreeDoctor of Philosophy (PhD)
dc.description.departmentPsychology
dc.identifier.doihttps://doi.org/10.7275/470c-8r25
dc.identifier.orcidN/A
dc.identifier.urihttps://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14394/18146
dc.relation.urlhttps://scholarworks.umass.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1039&context=dissertations_2&unstamped=1
dc.source.statuspublished
dc.subjectAdoption
dc.subjectEmotion
dc.subjectClose Relationships
dc.subjectAdolescence
dc.subjectEmerging Adulthood
dc.subjectClinical Psychology
dc.subjectCounseling Psychology
dc.subjectDevelopmental Psychology
dc.titleEmotion in Adoption Narratives: Links to Close Relationships in Emerging Adulthood
dc.typedissertation
digcom.contributor.authorisAuthorOfPublication|email:hgrant@psych.umass.edu|institution:University of Massachusetts Amherst|Grant-Marsney, Holly A.
digcom.identifierdissertations_2/188
digcom.identifier.contextkey5411387
digcom.identifier.submissionpathdissertations_2/188
dspace.entity.typePublication
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