Making relationships work : enhancing the quality of adolescent relationships

Authors

Alan M. Berman, Florida International UniversityFollow

Document Type

Thesis

Degree

Master of Science (MS)

Major/Program

Psychology

First Advisor's Name

William Kurtines

First Advisor's Committee Title

Committee Chair

Second Advisor's Name

Wendy Silverman

Third Advisor's Name

Jonathan G. Tubman

Date of Defense

4-25-1996

Abstract

This thesis developed and pilot tested the effectiveness of a psychosocial intervention, the Making Relationships Work (MRW) Workshop. The MRW has two aims. At the interpersonal level, MRW seeks to enhance the quality of the relationships of the adolescents who participate in the workshop. At the psychological level, MRW seeks to foster the development (or enhancement) of a sense of identity and intimacy among the adolescents who participate in the workshop. The MRW Workshops consist of a psychosocial group intervention that includes skills and knowledge development, perspective taking, and group experiential exercises. Subjects consisted of 26 late adolescents. A within-subjects design (pre-post-follow up) was used to assess the effectiveness, efficacy and utility of the MRW as measured by the Identity Domain Survey (IDS), SCL-90 (a psychological symptom distress checklist), Relationship Quality Scale (RQS), Relationship Closeness Inventory (RCI), Internal-External Locus of Control Measure (I-E), and two MRW Evaluation forms. One-way ANOVAs were performed with results indicating less distress ratings on the IDS and the SCL-90. No significant results were found on the RQS, RCI and I-E. Finally, the evaluation forms of the workshop revealed very positive ratings.

Identifier

FI14051112

Recommended Citation

Berman, Alan M., "Making relationships work : enhancing the quality of adolescent relationships" (1996). FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations. 1625.
https://digitalcommons.fiu.edu/etd/1625