Browsing by Subject "Turning points"

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    Moderating processes in the link between early caregiving and adult individual and romantic functioning: the distinctive contributions of early adult romantic relationships.
    (2011-08) Salvatore, Jessica Elizabeth
    This study tested a model of early adulthood romantic relationships as moderators of the effects of early caregiving experiences in predicting life satisfaction, romantic relationship quality, and depression/anxiety in later adulthood. Participants (n = 83) were a subsample from a 35-year longitudinal study of risk and adaptation. The quality of early caregiving was measured using a composite of infant attachment at 12 and 18 months, maternal supportive presence and hostility at 24 and 42 months, and maternal verbal and emotional responsivity at 30 months were included. The quality of early and later adulthood romantic relationships was assessed from in-depth interviews conducted with participants at ages 23 and 32. Life satisfaction was measured at age 32. Depression/anxiety symptoms were measured at ages 23, 26, and 32. Results indicated that early adulthood romantic relationships moderate early caregiving to predict trajectories of depression/anxiety symptoms between ages 23-32, but not the single measures of life satisfaction and romantic quality at age 32. The depression/anxiety findings are consistent with the organizational-developmental principle that individual functioning is a product of one's developmental history and current circumstances, and offer a possible interpretation for the null interaction effects obtained in the life satisfaction and romantic quality analyses. Results underscore the importance of taking a developmental perspective on turning point phenomena.
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    Turning points in the transition to adulthood
    (2012-10) Fischer, Laura L.
    The concept of turning point is an important notion in studies of the Life Course. In the black and white world of the life story, turning points appear in living color; they flash in memory, meaningful in bold relief. Turning points stand out as times when we find ourselves plunging through the looking glass to the place where nothing is as it was before; to the place where Strauss suggested, "I am not the same person as I was, as I used to be" (Strauss 1959:93). Since the time of Strauss turning points have been conceptualized in a number of ways. Yet, little is known about how young people in transition to adulthood express and experience turning points. To investigate subjective experiences of turning points, 80 narrative interviews randomly sampled from the MacArthur Foundation Qualitative Study on the Transition to Adulthood. These interviews have been gathered from five locations in the United States and include a number of questions salient to the transition to adulthood. Subjective expressions of change are analyzed in terms of a classical composite defintion of turning points. Findings are suggestive indicating that turning point experiences contain elements of the classical definition and appear prominent particularly in the domain of immigration. An ideal type turning point is suggested as a tool for future studies.