Date of Award

2021

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Department

Psychology

Abstract

Parental attachment impacts multiple life outcomes and abilities from infancy to adulthood, including mindfulness. Acting-with-awareness is one facet of mindfulness involving an individuals ability to attend to the present moment. Independently, both attachment-based strategies and mindfulness-based strategies are incorporated into therapy; however, therapeutic strategies considering both constructs are limited. Further, research investigating the relationship between parental attachment and acting-with-awareness in college-aged individuals is narrow. The present study investigated three research questions: (a) what the factor structure of modified The Experiences in Close Relationships-Revised (ECR-R) for parental attachment is; (b) if there are significant differences across parental attachment styles based on acting-with-awareness; (c) if parental attachment factors, anxiety and avoidance, predict acting-with-awareness while controlling for gender and adverse event history (Fraley et al., 2000). Participants included young adults and college students between 18 and 25 years of age in the Midwest. The Experiences in Close Relationships-Revised (Fraley et al., 2000) was used to assess parental attachment, and the Mindful Attentional Awareness Scale (Brown & Ryan, 2003) was used to assess acting-with-awareness. The results found that a modified ECR-R for parental attachment displayed a two-factor structure; however, goodness of fit was poor. In the remaining analyses, attachment-related anxiety was the most influential variable on acting-with-awareness. Participants with anxious and disorganized styles of attachment displayed lower acting-with-awareness levels than participants with a secure style. Attachment-related anxiety predicted acting-with-awareness when controlling for the Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACE)total score and gender. Further, the ACE total score had a negative association with acting-with-awareness without attachment factors. Overall, this study supported previous research regarding the influence of attachment on outcomes, like acting-with-awareness, and the continued need to integrate attachment and mindfulness into psychological practice.

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