The Relationship between Attachment, Coping, and Psychological Distress in a Sample of Adolescent Females in Foster Care.
Open Access
- Author:
- Chisolm, Kamaria
- Graduate Program:
- Counseling Psychology
- Degree:
- Doctor of Philosophy
- Document Type:
- Dissertation
- Date of Defense:
- May 22, 2012
- Committee Members:
- Susan S Woodhouse, Dissertation Advisor/Co-Advisor
Kathleen Bieschke, Committee Member
Jolynn Carney, Committee Member
Michelle E Day, Committee Member - Keywords:
- Attachment
Coping
Psychological Distress
Adolescents
Foster Care
Youth
Females
Depression
Anxiety
Wards of the State - Abstract:
- Given that youth in foster care are at-risk for a host of negative outcomes, it is imperative that research is conducted within this population in order to identify factors that contribute to these youths’ distress. The present study examined the relationships between attachment (anxiety, avoidance, fearful-avoidant, and dismissing-avoidant), coping (active, avoidance, and distraction), and psychological distress in a sample of adolescent females in foster care. Additionally, a textual analysis was conducted on two open ended questions on coping and distress. Participants were 30 adolescent (ages 14-19) females in foster care who were wards of New York State. Four county Department of Social Services within Western New York participated in the study and allowed recruitment of their foster care youth. Results indicated that attachment avoidance was positively related to avoidance coping. Results were consistent with previous findings of a significant relationship between fearful-avoidant attachment and avoidance coping and a significant relationship between dismissing-avoidant attachment and distraction coping. Textual analyses of free-written responses to questions about distress and coping identified six subgroups of adolescent females in foster care. Results of the textual analyses showed that only the High Symptom Maximizer group (high levels of clinical symptoms, low reporting of distress) indicated having difficulty coping when compared to others. In contrast, the Low Symptom Maximizer group (low levels of clinical symptoms, high reporting of distress) did not report more difficulty coping when compared to others. Thus, despite use of maximizing strategy to report distress these youth did not feel like they had problems coping when compared to others. Additionally, two contrasts emerged with regard to youth who said they had no more difficulty coping compared to others, yet also had high levels of clinical symptoms. Specifically, youth who used a minimizing strategy to report distress, regardless of level of clinical symptoms (high and low) said they did not believe they had problems coping when compared to others; and the same pattern emerged across both the high and low symptom groups with mixed reporting of distress style. This suggests that the focus should be on clinical symptoms as opposed to distress reporting style in efforts to reduce the distress of youth in foster care. Implications for counseling and study limitations are addressed.