Promoting attachment security during the transition to college: A pilot study of emotionally focused mentoring.

Attachment insecurity is a transdiagnostic marker of risk associated with interpersonal emotion dysregulation and adverse psychosocial outcomes across the lifespan. Few interventions target the enhancement of attachment security in late adolescence. Most programs focus on strengthening the adolescent-caregiver relationship; meanwhile, youth increasingly spend less time with their families and look to peer relationships as a source of connection, particularly as they transition to college. Drawing from the principles of Emotionally Focused Therapy, we developed a psychotherapeutic peer mentorship program to enhance attachment security for insecurely attached youth during the transition to college. We tested the preliminary efficacy of Emotionally Focused Mentorship (EFM) in an open pilot trial by pairing (N = 82) insecurely attached first-year college students (i.e., "mentees") with securely attached mentors. Across five weekly sessions, mentors helped mentees identify and express their emotions in close relationships by working through different relational scenarios. Attachment and mental health trajectories were self-reported three times over five weeks and analyzed using Bayesian growth curve models. Across five weeks, participants reported improvements in attachment anxiety and avoidance, emotion regulation difficulties, depressive symptoms, loneliness, and self-esteem. Participants who completed the intervention (n = 55) noted improvements in their psychological wellbeing and interpersonal relationships. Results are promising and highlight the need to conduct a randomized clinical trial to test if these effects are causal. Given rising mental health demands, trained peer mentors may be a cost-effective way to improve attachment and psychological outcomes for insecurely attached participants during the transition to college.

Ending the silo effect: A test of the relational domain spillover model.

Couple interventions are limited in their effectiveness for reducing marital distress and dissolution. One explanation for this may be the narrow focus on conflict management and a limited understanding of how other domains in marriage influence one another over time. We present the first test of the relational domain spillover model (RDSM) to understand the extent to which poor functioning in either positive or negative areas of the relationship spill over into other aspects of relationship functioning across time. Husbands and wives reported annually on the quality of five relationship domains (emotional intimacy, sex, support, power/control, and conflict) over the first seven years of marriage. Longitudinal dyadic multilevel modeling techniques were used to examine how domains change over time and how earlier declines in positive areas of couple functioning predict later problems in negative areas of couple functioning and vice versa. We found support for both directions of the RDSM model. Earlier declines in sexuality and support predicted later declines in conflict, and, for wives, earlier declines in couple sexuality were linked to later control issues. Earlier declines in conflict communication and control predicted later problems with emotional intimacy. For men, longitudinal associations between sexuality and conflict, and control, were bidirectional. These findings point to the need to move toward a multi-dimensional, dynamic conceptualization of relationship functioning across time and the importance of focusing on different relational domains as targets for couple interventions.

Marital Status, Close Relationships, and All-Cause Mortality: Results From a 10-Year Study of Nationally Representative Older Adults.

OBJECTIVE: Becoming widowed is associated with an increased risk of early mortality. Drawing on theoretical literature related to social support and health, the present study evaluated whether the quantity of close relationships might differentially moderate the relationship between marital status (widowed versus married) and mortality risk 10 years later. METHOD: Data were obtained from the National Social Life Health and Aging Project. A diverse group of older adults (n = 2347) were interviewed three times for 10 years. Information on close friends/family, marital status, and mortality was gathered. Logistic regression and moderation analyses were used to test whether the quantity of close relationships conditioned the risk of death for married and widowed adults 10 years later. RESULTS: The quantity of close relationships moderated the association between marital status and mortality risk (B = -0.35, SE = 0.11, p = .002). Compared with their married counterparts, widowed older adults who had fewer than four to six close relationships had an increased risk of death 10 years later (B = -0.35, SE = 0.09, p < .001); similarly, among people who reported few close relationships, widowed adults had an increased risk of death compared with their married counterparts (B = 0.54, SE = 0.15, p < .001). These findings remained significant after accounting for demographics, health behaviors/chronic health conditions, and psychological distress. This effect is comparable to the increased mortality risk associated with smoking cigarettes. CONCLUSIONS: Having fewer than four to six close relationships is associated with an increased mortality risk for widowed older adults.