review of relevant studies, the thesis project report presented here provides a critique of methods used to answer the general research question. This critique is be followed by a delineation of the implications of the review for: (1) research in marriage and family therapy and (2) counselors practicing marriage and family therapy.
Relation of Parental Death In Childhood To Women's Intimate Relationships in Adulthood
Although there have been very few recent studies of parental loss during childhood and its effects on women's intimate relationships in adulthood, there were some studies done in this area during the 1980s. In one early study of the effects of childhood loss of a parent on intimate relationships, Hepworth (1981) noted that with respect to the earlier research:
Research on intimate relationship formation has focused on partner selection, and ignored the prior question of why a partner is being selected at a given time in the individual's life. The life events or social pressures which may influence one's decision to form such relationships have not been considered. (p.1232)
In an effort to add to the scientific understanding of how life events influence one's decision to form an intimate relationships, Hepworth (1981) conducted two independent studies of the intimate relationships of men and women who had lost their parents in late adolescence. In one study, sample subjects were unmarried and in the other study, subjects were married.
The married sample was drawn from a larger sample of 2000 couples and included 98 recently married couples in which one spouse had experienced the death of a parent at or after age 16, and 98 comparison couples with no parental loss. The unmarried sample, obtained after screening 4,000 undergraduate students, included 251 undergraduates: 57 with recent parental death, 62 with recent parental divorce and 132 comparison individuals with no form of parental loss.
It was ...