Abstract
The relation between young people 'perceptions of the reasonsfortheirparents 'divorces and their own feelings of security in romantic relationships was explored in this study. Eighty-one young persons from divorced homes completed the Reasons for Parental Divorce Questionnaire (RPDQ) developed specifically for this study and self-report instruments regarding attachment style, as measured by the Relationship Questionnaire (RQ) (Bartholomew & Horowitz, 1991) and the Relationships Scale Questionnaire (RSQ) (Griffin & Bartholomew, 1994). The majority (73%) of young people in this study described insecure attachment styles. As expected, perceptions of why parents divorced were significantly related to young persons'attachment outcomes. Reasons for divorce involving expressions of overt anger; the involvement of the children, and extramarital affairs were most important in differentiating secure and insecure young persons. Thus, these results indicate that there may be meaningful connections between young people 's understandings of theirparents 'divorces and their own romantic relational perspectives.
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