• Human Ecology Research
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• v.52 no.4
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• pp.337-345
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• 2014

The purpose of this study was to examine the mediating effect of the adult attachment in the relationship between the family of origin functioning and fear of intimacy. Data were collected through a questionnaire from 557 university students in the Jeollabuk-do of South Korea. The collected data were analyzed by basic descriptive statistics, Pearson's correlations and multiple regression analysis. Baron and Kenny's method was used and examined, and the Sobel test was performed to determine the mediating model's significance. It was adapted to SPSS ver. 18.0 for Windows. The major findings were as follows: first, the functioning of family-of-origin was negatively related to the fear of intimacy. In addition, younger students and students with less past dating experience were more likely to fear of intimacy. Second, fear of intimacy was influenced by the family-of-origin through the intermediate effect of attachment avoidance and attachment anxiety. Attachment avoidance and attachment anxiety had partial mediating effects on the relationship between family-of-origin functioning and the fear of intimacy. That is, family-of-origin functioning was shown to have not only a direct effect, but also an indirect effect through attachment avoidance and attachment anxiety, on the fear of intimacy. The results of this study suggest that the importance of family-of-origin functioning in order to improve Korean college students' intimacy abilities.

• Korean Journal of Health Psychology
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• v.16 no.1
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• pp.169-187
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• 2011

The present study explored psychosocial characteristics of infants with genital anomalies (GA) and their caregivers against normal controls. Participants were female caregivers and infants between the ages of 6to38months diagnosed with hypospadias(HS;n=103) or cryptorchidism (CR;n=49). Normalcontrols(n=131) were recruited and selected via Internet. Caregivers completed measures on parenting stress, coping style, social support, and infant temperament. Within the GAgroups, HScaregivers reported their greatest parental concerns as infant urination/bodily functioning difficulties whereas CRcaregivers reported worries related to surgical anesthesia issues. Both groups reported concern about their children's potential reproductive problems. Per caregiver report, infants with GA had lower ability to self-soothe. HS infants in particular were perceived as exhibiting greater negative emotion. Compared with controls, HS and CRcaregivers overall employed coping strategies more frequently and had lower interpersonal sensitivity and parental distress. However, HScaregivers emerged as experiencing higher stress when compared to the CRgroup. There were no differences in to tal parenting stress and social support scores between groups. Further, CRcaregivers reported lower levels of family discord than controls. Despite temperament-related differences between infants with GA and normal controls, HS and CRcaregivers reported lower parental distress and greater use of coping skills as compared to controls. Clinical implications are discussed.