Marital Relationships and Parenting: Intimate relations and their correlates

Romantic relationships, especially good ones, are desired of almost all humans. However, what makes such relationships good and nourishing? For the most part, it is the support and intimacy that exists within the couple, and their ability to experience life and face difficulties together. This book is divided into two sections, one focusing on the couple and their intimate relationship, and the other on how that relationship influences their offspring. Part one examines whether sacrificing in an intimate relationship is always beneficial and whether it help strengthen the marital/couple unit? Attachment theory has had a significant influence on how we view relationships in childhood as well as in adulthood. The book sheds light on the mechanisms that mediate attachment style and the quality of the intimate relationships, exploring the relationship between one's ability to express empathy and that person's ability to offer social support to his/her partner. The second part of the book explores what young adults think about marriage, influenced by their parental relationship; how parental relationships affect children's social experience in school; how parental approaches to children affect their sibling relationship; the parental role in childhood eating disturbances; and how the family climate affects children's loneliness. All in all, the book affords a thorough review not only of what marital/couple intimacy is and what can affect it, but how significant it is in affecting their children, in and out of the house. The chapters in this book were originally published in the Journal of Psychology.

Ami Rokach is a Clinical Psychologist who combines treating individuals and couples with university teaching, and research, based at York University, Toronto, Canada. His areas of interest and expertise include loneliness, marital and sex therapy, anxiety and depression reduction, and helping patients and people in general acquire the tools to develop and enjoy intimate relationships.

Introduction Part I: Marital and Intimate Relations 1. Intimacy Behaviors and Relationship Satisfaction for Cohabitors: Intimate Sacrifices Are Not Always Beneficial 2. Adult Attachment and Dyadic Adjustment: The Mediating Role of Shame 3. Humor Use in Romantic Relationships: The Effects of Relationship Satisfaction and Pleasant Versus Conflict Situations 4. Empathy and Social Support Provision in Couples: Social Support and the Need to Study the Underlying Processes 5. Adult Attachment Styles and Psychological Disease: Examining the Mediating Role of Personality Traits 6. How Does Culture Influence the Degree of Romantic Loneliness and Closeness? Part II: Parents, children, support and intimacy 7. Marriage Matters But How Much? Marital Centrality Among Young Adults 8. Parental Attachment and Adolescents' Perception of School Alienation: The Mediation Role of Self-Esteem and Adjustment 9. Young Adult Sibling Relations: The Effects of Perceived Parental Favoritism and Narcissism 10. Perceived Parenting and Separation-Individuation in Belgian College Students: Associations with Emotional Adjustment 11. Parental Support and Adolescent Motivation for Dieting: The Self-Determination Theory Perspective 12. The Effect of Attachment Insecurity in the Development of Eating Disturbances across Gender: The Role of Body Dissatisfaction 13. Children's Loneliness, Sense of Coherence, Family Climate, and Hope: Developmental Risk and Protective Factors