TIME OF OCCURRENCE OF PARENTAL MARITAL DISSOLUTION: THE DIFFERENCES BETWEEN GENDER IN ROMANTIC INTIMACY AND ANXIETY

Parental marital dissolution is a serious public health threat. The aim of the current study is to examine how the time of occurrence of high conflict parental marital dissolution affects romantic intimacy between male and female young adults. If it is the case that high conflict parental marital dissolution increases relationship dissolution and each gender responds differently pre-marital dissolution and post-marital dissolution, then it is possible that there are gender differences in relation to time of occurrence of marital dissolution and its effect on anxiety levels and romantic intimacy levels. A significant positive relationship was found between anxiety and romantic intimacy , such that as participants with higher levels of anxiety also reported higher levels of fear of intimacy (low levels of romantic intimacy). A hierarchical multiple linear regression was calculated to predict anxiety scores based on parental dissolution, conflict category (high vs. low conflict), age of occurrence of parental marital dissolution (before adolescence vs. adolescence), and gender. There was no significance found (F(3, 39) = .901, p = .473, r2 = .08). Another hierarchical multiple linear regression was calculated to predict romantic intimacy scores based on parental dissolution, conflict category (high vs. low conflict), age of occurrence of parental marital dissolution (before adolescence vs. adolescence), and gender. . There was no significance found.