Relational Health

This article reviews friendship research to offer a conceptual framework that helps us better understand the co-constructive nature of gender, sexuality, and friendship in the United States. Scholarship across psychology and sociology considers friendship experiences, friendship processes, friendship patterns, friendship schemas, and the social implications of friendship. Psychological research identifies that friendship experiences and friendships processes differ by gender and explores the social implications for individuals. While sociology has dedicated less attention to friendship, this perspective offers insights on the social construction and structural basis of friendship. Sociological perspectives reveal how friendship schemas-based in amatonormativity, heteronormativity, and gender essentialism-shape friendship experiences, friendship processes, and friendship patterns in gendered ways. In addition, sociological research examines the social implications of friendship at both individual and institutional levels, documenting friendship's roles in systems of inequality. Thus, I argue that a sociological perspective is necessary to fully grasp how societies in general and cultural understandings of gender and sexuality in particular, shape and are shaped by friendships.

Research consistently demonstrates elevated rates of depression among college-aged women, yet evidence of racial differences in depression among this population are poorly understood. Moreover, the correlates of depression among Asian American women are also understudied. In this exploratory analysis, we examined mean differences in depression levels in a sample of Asian American (n = 117) and European American (n = 257) students from a women's liberal arts college. We also estimated associations between depression and relational health in three types of relationships (mentor, friend, and college community) using ordinary least squares regression. Relational health was examined as a buffer (i.e., moderator) against depression. Results indicated no differences in depression levels between Asian American and European American women. Relationships with the college community were associated with lower levels of depression in both groups of women. Limited evidence suggested that relational health served as a buffer. Results are discussed in light of interventions for college campuses.

35 The Australian Community Psychologist Volume 19 No 2 December 2007 The Relational-Cultural Model (RCM) is rooted in the seminal work of Jean Baker Miller, who presented a new conceptualization of human development in her book Toward a New Psychology of ...

The Relational Health Indices (RHI) is a relatively new measure that assesses the strength of relationships. It has been found that relational health has a protective factor for women, such that it enhances positive experiences and limits negative ones. The current study is the first to use the RHI to examine the effect of relational health on alcohol consumption and alcohol consequences. First year college women were given questionnaires assessing relational health, drinking motives, and alcohol use in their first few months at a mid-sized, private university. Due to the social nature of college settings, it was predicted that relational health would moderate the relationship between motives and alcohol consumption. Further, due to the protective factor of relational health, it was predicted that relational health would attenuate the relationship between drinking and negative consequences. These hypotheses were supported. Relational health, moderated the relationship between both social and coping drinking motives and drinking, such that women with strong relational health towards their peers and community who also had high social and coping motives, drank more than those with weaker relationships. Paradoxically, relational health also moderated the relationship between drinking and consequences such that heavy drinking women with strong relational health experienced fewer negative consequences than women with weaker relational health. Results indicate that although relational health is associated with an increase in alcohol consumption, it may also serve as a protective factor for alcohol-related negative consequences. Future research and interventions may seek to de-link the relational health-drinking connection in the college student environment.

Aim/Purpose: This study explored the connection between Tinto’s notion of “rites of passage” and Kenny’s parental attachment. Specifically, this study sought to explain how students’ parental attachment (i.e., affective quality of parental relationships, parents’ ability to facilitate independence, and parents as source of support) influenced their rites of passage (i.e., separation, transition, incorporation) and how this may differ based on different demographic data. By understanding students’ connections to their parents, student affairs/life administrators will be better able to offer programming that helps students move through the rites of passage in order for the students to become more academically and socially integrated within the institution and ultimately persist. Background: There is little doubt that academic and social integration play a major role in college student persistence. Yet, there remains considerable interest in how students reach this integration. One fac...

A reliability generalization (RG) of the Profile of Mood States (POMS) was conducted to ascertain the average and the variation of the internal consistency form of reliability for the POMS when administered to various populations. RG is a meta-analytic technique. As reliability is a property of the scores obtained from a measure, not an immutable aspect of a measure itself, it is useful to assess the degree of variability as well as determinants of higher reliability using RG. POMS is a self-report instrument used extensively in clinical, medical, and research settings to measure transient affective mood states. The term profile of mood states was searched in four databases producing 2,745 results. In total, 224 studies reported Cronbach’s alpha reliability coefficients for their samples. An initial multiple regression analysis was statistically significant; mean age was the strongest variable in the regression equation. Reliability increased as mean age increased. Independent sampl...

The lepton polarization asymmetry in the B → ℓ + ℓ -decay, when one of the leptons is polarized, is investigated using the most general form of the effective Hamiltonian. The sensitivity of the asymmetry to the new Wilson coefficients is studied.Moreover, correlations between the lepton polarization asymmetry and the branching ratio is studied. It is observed that, there are not exist such regions of new Wilson coefficients, which the value of branching ratio coincides with SM result while the lepton polarization does not, i.e new physics effects can be established by studying lepton polarization only.

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This study examines relational health, parental attachment, and psychological distress in college men and women from the perspective of the relational-cultural model . Peer, mentor, and community relationships, as well as secure parental attachment and year in school, were hypothesized to predict psychological distress, although predictive patterns were expected to differ in women and men. Overall, results supported the hypotheses. Secure parental attachment predicted decreased distress for both women and men. Authentic, empowered, and engaged community relationships significantly predicted decreased distress for women and men. However, for women, peer relational quality was also a significant predictor. The relational-cultural model, which suggests that differentiation and the "felt sense of self" (Jordan, 1997, p. 15) evolve through meaningful connections with others rather than as a result of the separation-individuation process, is applied as a framework for interpreting the findings. A substantial body of research on college student adjustment has been amassed over the past several years. A considerable amount of this literature has focused on the relationship between social support and psychological adjustment. Although the research initially emphasized the structure (i.e., type of relationships) and function (i.e., types of available resources) of social support , over time it has expanded to include investigation of the associations between relational health and psychological adjustment (e.g.

Using the relational–cultural model (Jordan, Kaplan, Miller, Stiver, & Surrey, 1991), the authors hypothesized that instrumentality, expressivity, and the individual affective experience of same-sex friendships would predict increased relationship mutuality, with college women and men showing different predictive patterns. Overall, results supported the hypotheses. Gender moderated the associations among variables, notably between mutuality and individual affective experiences of same-sex friendships. Implications for counselors serving college student populations are discussed.

This study examined how men's masculine gender-role conflict and the importance men placed on interpersonal relationships in defining their self-identities predicted their relational health experiences in same-sex, dyadic friendships and community relationships. Using an Internet sample of 283 self-identified bisexual, gay, and straight men, results of hierarchical linear regression analyses indicated that for men across sexual orientations, the more importance men placed on interpersonal relationships with other men, the greater the degree of relational health they experienced in dyadic friendships. Additionally, for bisexual and gay men in dyadic friendships with other men, gender-role conflict was inversely related to the relational health of their friendships. In the domain of community relationships, the importance that bisexual and straight men placed on interpersonal relationships in defining their self-identities and levels of gender-role conflict predicted relational health experiences. For gay men, however, feelings of 125 masculine gender-role conflict, alone, predicted poorer relational health in community relationships. Study limitations, clinical implications for practice, and future research directions are discussed.

This study examines relational health, parental attachment, and psychological distress in college men and women from the perspective of the relational-cultural model . Peer, mentor, and community relationships, as well as secure parental attachment and year in school, were hypothesized to predict psychological distress, although predictive patterns were expected to differ in women and men. Overall, results supported the hypotheses. Secure parental attachment predicted decreased distress for both women and men. Authentic, empowered, and engaged community relationships significantly predicted decreased distress for women and men. However, for women, peer relational quality was also a significant predictor. The relational-cultural model, which suggests that differentiation and the "felt sense of self" (Jordan, 1997, p. 15) evolve through meaningful connections with others rather than as a result of the separation-individuation process, is applied as a framework for interpreting the findings.

Using the relational-cultural model , the authors hypothesized that instrumentality, expressivity, and the individual affective experience of same-sex friendships would predict increased relationship mutuality, with college women and men showing different predictive patterns. Overall, results supported the hypotheses. Gender moderated the associations among variables, notably between mutuality and individual affective experiences of same-sex friendships. Implications for counselors serving college student populations are discussed.