Undergraduate social work and psychology student Hannah Miller

Author: Hannah Miller | Major: Social Work | Semester: Fall 2022

During the summer of 2022, I started my social work research study under guidance from my honors thesis mentor, Dr. LaShawnda Fields. My study focuses specifically on whether a connection exists between one’s experience with family in childhood and their attachment styles in adulthood. I developed this research idea after learning about attachment theory in my Human Behavior and the Social Environment class with Susan Tyler in the Fall of 2021. The idea that one’s relationships with their primary caregivers can affect their relationships as an adult was a fascinating one that I wanted to explore further. As I delved into research on attachment, I started to ask myself what other factors may affect adult relationships? I noticed that no current research study has examined whether a connection exists between specific family dynamics and adult attachment. After bringing this idea to my mentor Dr. Fields, we collaborated to design a mixed-methods study that seeks to answer my question: Does one’s family dynamic in childhood affect their attachment style in adulthood?

During June 2022, I spent much of my time reading research on attachment in both my fields of study: social work and psychology. After beginning my literature review, I wrote a grant proposal for the Honors College Research Grant to help fund some incentives to encourage participation in my study. When I learned I had received the grant, I was ecstatic because I knew it would allow me to increase the representation of my study through offering incentives.

Dr. Fields and I spent much of the Fall 2022 semester designing the research study. For the quantitative piece of the study, we developed a survey that asks participants questions about their experiences with family before turning 18. For example, participants indicate who was present in their home consistently, the relationship status of their parents or primary caregivers, etc. Then, participants answer 30 questions from the Relationship Style Questionnaire, a research-supported measurement of adult attachment, indicating their patterns of attachment as adults. For the qualitative piece, I am conducting interviews using the Adult Attachment Interview, another research-backed instrument, to examine participants’ perceptions of how their family dynamics impact their relationships as an adult. My hypothesis is that a relationship exists between specific family structures in childhood and one’s attachment style.

After creating the survey, interview script, advertisement materials, and informed consent documents, I submitted the study design for IRB review. After making a few edits and a few weeks of waiting, we obtained IRB approval. The survey portion of my study was launched right after Thanksgiving break, and I have conducted several interviews in November and December.

So far, my research experience has been a positive one, but not without challenges. After I launched my survey, I noticed I had hundreds of survey responses within just a few minutes, which seemed odd to me. Because my survey is anonymous, I checked the form where participants enter the gift card giveaway to check on the responses.Unfortunately, I quickly realized most of the email addresses belonged to bots. Because of this, I had to modify my documents to include a CAPTCHA to prevent bots from skewing the data. This was challenging because my survey collection instrument does not allow me to code CAPTCHA into the survey directly. I also could not limit submissions to real email accounts because that would interfere with confidentiality. My mentor Dr. Fields gave me lots of encouragement, which was really helpful during this setback. After troubleshooting for two days, I created my own CAPTCHA in my survey instrument and re-launched the survey. Thankfully, this allowed me to receive participation free from bots.

My mentor and I are anticipating finishing data collection by the end of January, when I will begin coding and analyzing my data. I have 85 survey responses so far after advertising the study on social media, have conducted three interviews, and have several other interviews scheduled for January 2023. I am proud of my participation so far, and am excited to being analyzing my data and writing my thesis. In April of 2023, I will present my thesis before my honors committee.

The Honors College grant I received this past summer has allowed me to achieve success in recruiting participants by allowing me incentive participation. Those who take my survey are entered to win a $50 gift card, and every person that completes the interview portion of the study receives a $25 gift card. Without these incentives, it would be much more challenging to recruit a diverse sample of study participants, especially those for the interview portion.

Adult attachment is an important topic, as everyone’s life is impacted by their ability to form and maintain relationships with others. Community and connection are vital to one’s sense of self, confidence, and overall well being, and I am so grateful to have the opportunity to contribute to research in these areas. I am confident that when completed, my study will contribute to social work literature by allowing others to better understand what role family dynamics play in perceived attachment abilities in adulthood.