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[Mod Approved!] Psychological Survey on Attachment, Relationships, and Sleep Quality
Morblitz
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
Hey everyone,
Firstly, I’d like to both acknowledge and thank Ceres for granting permission for me to post my Psychological survey in this thread, and allowing me to invite you cool fellows to participate if you want to.
I’ve been a long time member of this forum. I am a student currently completing a degree in Psychological Science (Honours) at Charles Darwin University, Australia. Some of you may remember my anxiety ridden H/A thread about trying to get into this very program, and I did manage to get in! (Yay!) So thank you for your support and advice back then, it really helped.
I am now almost done with the course, and have my thesis left to do.
So, as part of this, I (alongside my supervisor) am conducting an Internet based psychological study for my Honours thesis project. We are seeking male and female participants who are 18 years of age or older, and are able to read and write English fluently.
About the project:
The project that I am aiming to complete is about the possible psycho-social influences that may affect peoples’ quality of sleep, which may ultimately impact on their health and well-being. The main influences that I am investigating are close relationship and adult attachment. Attachment theory involves ‘attachment styles’ that are psychological processes that involve emotional bonds with an attachment figure (such as a parent) that may help shape personality and social development through infancy into adulthood. For adults, it is said that attachment styles may impact upon peoples close personal relationships, especially as people branch out and obtain new “attachment figures”, such as close friends or romantic partners. Attachment has also been shown to influence other aspects of people’s lives, such as health promoting or health risking behaviour, and of course, sleep.
So, I am aiming to examine the relationships between people’s attachment styles, the level of satisfaction they have with a significant person (attachment figure) in their life (parent, spouse/partner, close friend, etc) and how this may affect their sleep quality.
We also understand that sleep difficulties and dysfunction often accompany disturbances in mood like depression and anxiety. To accommodate for this, we are looking to measure and control for mood, so we can examine the unique contribution of attachment and relationship satisfaction to sleep quality without interference.
Why I have chosen this topic:
Personally, I find the area of sleep to be extremely interesting, and it is my genuine hope that one day, my research can help provide healthcare professionals with a greater understanding of the possible factors involved in affecting people’s ability to achieve healthy and restful sleep. So that if a person is suffering sleep difficulties, the treatment they receive would hopefully be more informed, comprehensive, and effective. Research into adult attachment and sleep is also a fairly new and relatively unexplored area, but it is starting to grow. With that in mind, more research into this area can only help people, especially with how common sleep problems are these days. I hope that my current and/or future research will be able to do that. I am also extremely interested in how this diverse community might be reflected in any results that I obtain.
About the survey (Important) :
For those that would like to participate in the study or are considering, the survey shouldn’t take more than approximately 15 minutes to complete. So if you can spare the time it would be fantastic if you could give it a go.
It does not ask for any identifying information such as e-mail addresses, or other contact details. All information provided will be anonymous and protected. It is also completely confidential and voluntary. Participants have the ability to withdraw from the project at any time prior to submission of the survey. The survey is based on a collection of validated measures, and ethics approval has been obtained for the conduct of this study.
You do not need to be in a romantic relationship with a significant other to take this survey. It asks that you think about a relationship in your life that is very important to you, such as a father, mother, or yeah, romantic partner, and keep that one person in mind throughout the course of the survey. So anyone is able to take this survey.
For more information and also to start the questionnaire, please go to http://cduhes.asia.qualtrics.com/SE/?SID=SV_1ZDErOFtAJMvYy1 to view the plain language statement before deciding whether or not to proceed onward with the survey. It’s hosted on a professional University website so it is safe to access.
I’ve tried to provide enough information about my project without being too overwhelming - if it is indeed too much reading, let me know and I'll shorten it. However, if you have any other questions, or require more information about my topic/study feel free to ask here. I am just a student researcher at the honours level and this is my first research project, but I will endeavor to answer what I can. If I can’t, my awesome supervisor has offered to make himself available through e-mail. I’ll post his e-mail if necessary, although it can also be found in the Plain Language Statement in the survey link.
Thank you very much for your time, consideration, and participation guys. I really appreciate it.
Super Sincerely,
Morblitz
Firstly, I’d like to both acknowledge and thank Ceres for granting permission for me to post my Psychological survey in this thread, and allowing me to invite you cool fellows to participate if you want to.
I’ve been a long time member of this forum. I am a student currently completing a degree in Psychological Science (Honours) at Charles Darwin University, Australia. Some of you may remember my anxiety ridden H/A thread about trying to get into this very program, and I did manage to get in! (Yay!) So thank you for your support and advice back then, it really helped.
I am now almost done with the course, and have my thesis left to do.
So, as part of this, I (alongside my supervisor) am conducting an Internet based psychological study for my Honours thesis project. We are seeking male and female participants who are 18 years of age or older, and are able to read and write English fluently.
About the project:
The project that I am aiming to complete is about the possible psycho-social influences that may affect peoples’ quality of sleep, which may ultimately impact on their health and well-being. The main influences that I am investigating are close relationship and adult attachment. Attachment theory involves ‘attachment styles’ that are psychological processes that involve emotional bonds with an attachment figure (such as a parent) that may help shape personality and social development through infancy into adulthood. For adults, it is said that attachment styles may impact upon peoples close personal relationships, especially as people branch out and obtain new “attachment figures”, such as close friends or romantic partners. Attachment has also been shown to influence other aspects of people’s lives, such as health promoting or health risking behaviour, and of course, sleep.
So, I am aiming to examine the relationships between people’s attachment styles, the level of satisfaction they have with a significant person (attachment figure) in their life (parent, spouse/partner, close friend, etc) and how this may affect their sleep quality.
We also understand that sleep difficulties and dysfunction often accompany disturbances in mood like depression and anxiety. To accommodate for this, we are looking to measure and control for mood, so we can examine the unique contribution of attachment and relationship satisfaction to sleep quality without interference.
Why I have chosen this topic:
Personally, I find the area of sleep to be extremely interesting, and it is my genuine hope that one day, my research can help provide healthcare professionals with a greater understanding of the possible factors involved in affecting people’s ability to achieve healthy and restful sleep. So that if a person is suffering sleep difficulties, the treatment they receive would hopefully be more informed, comprehensive, and effective. Research into adult attachment and sleep is also a fairly new and relatively unexplored area, but it is starting to grow. With that in mind, more research into this area can only help people, especially with how common sleep problems are these days. I hope that my current and/or future research will be able to do that. I am also extremely interested in how this diverse community might be reflected in any results that I obtain.
About the survey (Important) :
For those that would like to participate in the study or are considering, the survey shouldn’t take more than approximately 15 minutes to complete. So if you can spare the time it would be fantastic if you could give it a go.
It does not ask for any identifying information such as e-mail addresses, or other contact details. All information provided will be anonymous and protected. It is also completely confidential and voluntary. Participants have the ability to withdraw from the project at any time prior to submission of the survey. The survey is based on a collection of validated measures, and ethics approval has been obtained for the conduct of this study.
You do not need to be in a romantic relationship with a significant other to take this survey. It asks that you think about a relationship in your life that is very important to you, such as a father, mother, or yeah, romantic partner, and keep that one person in mind throughout the course of the survey. So anyone is able to take this survey.
For more information and also to start the questionnaire, please go to http://cduhes.asia.qualtrics.com/SE/?SID=SV_1ZDErOFtAJMvYy1 to view the plain language statement before deciding whether or not to proceed onward with the survey. It’s hosted on a professional University website so it is safe to access.
I’ve tried to provide enough information about my project without being too overwhelming - if it is indeed too much reading, let me know and I'll shorten it. However, if you have any other questions, or require more information about my topic/study feel free to ask here. I am just a student researcher at the honours level and this is my first research project, but I will endeavor to answer what I can. If I can’t, my awesome supervisor has offered to make himself available through e-mail. I’ll post his e-mail if necessary, although it can also be found in the Plain Language Statement in the survey link.
Thank you very much for your time, consideration, and participation guys. I really appreciate it.
Super Sincerely,
Morblitz
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Is that so? That's really interesting. I'd love to have a chat with you about that some time. How/why do you know so much? Are you a researcher? You actually make an interesting point about maybe knowing too much. Perhaps we should play it on the safe side. Still, though, thank you for stopping by.
@ceres You have time! It will be up for at least a few weeks to a month. I can't guarantee how long it will be up on page 1 of H/A though! But if you bookmark the link or this thread or whatever, you have plenty of time to take it when it is convenient for you. Thanks
I'll come back here and post when I am getting ready to take it down just in case people wanted to take it but hadn't found the time.
@Jesbus314 That is a good point - and it's interesting that in the week that the survey has been up, this is the first time someone has commented on that part of the questionnaire. However, you don't need input from your roommate/bed partner, because that section is for qualitative purposes and is not a part of the direct sleep quality score, but it does help a lot. Basically, it aids me in building a more comprehensive view of your sleeping situation.
What I mean by this is, even though you didn't have access to your wife at the time, I'm sure your response is perfectly fine.
You do make a good point though, so I'll keep that in mind if I ever use this sleep quality measure again - which is likely if I keep pursuing sleep research/work. Thanks heaps for your participation and feedback.
Cheers guys!
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So I sincerely thank you guys, and thank you for letting me post the questionnaire up here. It really, really helped. Going into this I was quite worried that I wouldn't even break the minimum requirement of participants, but the amount of people that have participated has blown that away.
Thanks thanks thanks. I really appreciate everyone granting me some of their time and input.
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I apologise for being misleading about the time the survey would be 'active', it seems like the timetable moved up a bit more than I anticipated. Although neither myself nor my supervisor predicted the amount of responses we would get in the time it was up, so he really wants to hit the ground running.
Thanks again!
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I'll definitely let you guys know about the findings when I can.
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Now I plan on taking a nap because I realized, prehaps for the first time, I barely get 6.5 hours of sleep a night.
I am bookmarking this thread and I will be back to demand some results eventually.
Yeah the having a baby thing is a factor that was brought up in my proposal. A fellow student raised her hand and said 'My sleeping problems aren't actually attachment related, but having a toddler related'.
So we made some considerations for it. I think it's a good thing we did so - at least so we are aware of things like that.
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My thesis was received quite well, and the grade it was given was the lynch pin in my efforts to qualify for masters level postgraduate study. I have since been applying and interviewing at places from all over the country, and found out today that I got in to my local university! So THANK YOU guys. Your support was a factor in the success of this thesis.
So, here is my attempt at conveying how the thesis went. I hope it makes sense, let me know if it doesn't! I'm leaving for Christmas vacation in a couple days and wrote this up quickly because I'm busy getting ready to leave. I just wanted to let you guys know.
Despite appearances, this write up is actually very brief, it’s possible that my explanation may leave questions unanswered. If that’s the case, please ask and I’ll do my best to answer them. You may want to refresh yourself on the top by reading my OP, however, I will do my best to summarise what the concept of my thesis was here:
Background
The project that I worked on was about the possible psycho-social influences that may affect peoples’ quality of sleep, which may ultimately impact on their health and well-being. The main influences that I investigated were the satisfaction of close relationships and adult attachment styles.
Attachment theory involves ‘attachment styles’ that are psychological processes that involve emotional bonds with an attachment figure (such as a parent) that may help shape personality and social development through infancy into adulthood. For adults, it is said that attachment styles may impact upon peoples close personal relationships, especially as people branch out and obtain new “attachment figures”, such as close friends or romantic partners. Attachment has also been shown to influence other aspects of people’s lives, such as health promoting or health risking behaviour, and of course, sleep.
As you grow up, you develop your own sort of ‘attachment style’ which is a part of your personality and how you may deal with relationships with attachment figures.
They are currently considered to come in 3 styles, which range from low-high on a continuum. ‘Avoidant attachment’ regards the fear of commitment, ‘Anxious’ attachment is a fear of abandonment. These are considered to be ‘insecure’ attachment styles. Finally, there’s ‘secure’ attachment, which is characterised by very low levels of avoidant and anxious attachment. This means you may be easy going when it comes to relationships.
We also wanted to see if these attachment styles may INDIRECTLY influence sleep quality THROUGH relationship satisfaction. In doing so, we wanted to examine whether happy relationships may offset any potential negative impact that insecure attachment styles may have on how we sleep.
This is a very lightly researched area, so the project was novel in several aspects, which is pretty neat.
A bit about the study itself:
We ended up with 511 valid participants (wow) from all over the place, which I was told broke a department record and was about as reflective of the general population as someone in my situation was going to get.
Because we had so many people, we decided to conduct further exploratory analyses based on the reported relationship status of participants. We ended up with 3 groups large enough to study. Those are: Those in committed or defacto relationships, those who are married, and those who are single.
To see if attachment styles indirectly influenced sleep, we used a mediation analysis for anyone who is familiar with this method. However, the way mediation works is that for results to occur, you need to run 3 separate analyses which all require significant results. Such as, ‘insecure attachment contributes directly to impaired sleep’. If that doesn’t happen, you don’t get cool results. I mention this because we used a new method of mediation designed by a prominent expert in mediation, which does not need prerequisite results to occur. Instead of depending on 3 separate tests, the analysis simply tests an ‘indirect effect’ and tells you whether or not mediation occurs.
Here’s what was found:
In the analysis of the overall sample, we found that, the higher someone’s level of avoidant attachment, the worse you sleep. However, anxious attachment did not appear to impact sleep. This actually fits in with the only general population study that exists, which is interesting. I’m not going to go into great detail into the discussion because there’s a lot to talk about, but in short, it’s possible that the concerns that bother people who are attachment avoidant during the day may persist into sleep and contribute to sleep dysfunction. Next, both attachment styles were found to indirectly influence sleep through relationship satisfaction. However, we did find that the happier someone’s relationship was, the less impact that their insecure attachment had on their sleep.
So, even though someone’s insecure attachment style may put a certain amount of strain on their relationship, a healthy, happy, and supportive relationship may assist in alleviating whatever attachment distress they may have, which could lead to better sleep.
In the individual relationship groups, we found that only those within romantic relationships had their sleep influenced by their attachment, and then mitigated by relationship satisfaction. We think that’s because of the proximity of romantic attachment figures, and also because romantic partners may be somewhat dependent on each other for emotional security and happiness within their relationship. This may promote a greater frequency of attachment distress, which may increase mental alertness which may impair sleep. It’s likely that those who are single, don’t have the same manner of relationship with their attachment figure, and may be responsible for their own emotional security.
A really interesting find was that greater levels of anxious attachment contributed to BETTER sleep quality for those who are married. Research has found that Marriage may have more positive elements than non-married relationships, such as support, equality, trust, etc. We think it’s possible that these positive elements may have helped ease attachment concerns as they arose, so the greater the intensity, the greater the support. This may then have contributed to better sleep.
So there you have it. What we basically found was that happy relationships help you sleep better, and can protect against other pesky psychological nuisances. So get out there, get happy!
tl;dr Happy relationships may assist in mitigating the impact that certain insecure attachment styles may have on sleep quality - but only if its a romantic relationship.
*******Thank you so much to everyone who dedicated their time to take part in the study. I really, really appreciate it. You guys are the best.******
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