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The Effects of Family Conflict, Divorce, and Attachment Patterns on the Psychological Distress and Social Adjustment of College Freshmen
By: James W. Hannum

Ninety-five freshmen completed measures of attachment, family conflict, family structure, psychological distress, and social adjustment. Attachment to mother predicted less psychological distress and attachment to father and structure predicted better social adjustment. Conflict reduced attachment and predicted psychological distress. Attachment to mother mediated the relationship between conflict and psychological distress.

Although undergraduates include increasing numbers of older students, the majority (approximately 69%) of freshmen students in four-year colleges in the United States are 18 years old or younger (Sax, Lindholm, Astin, Korn, & Mahoney, 2001) and thus have only recently left their home and high school environment. Most freshmen adapt effectively to the changing environment of college; yet, the number of students reporting mental health problems continues to increase (Benton, Robertson, Tseng, Newton, & Benton, 2003). According to Golan (1981), young adults entering college face two developmental tasks: effectively negotiating a psychological separation from their family and adapting to the conditions of an adult world. The process of adaptation also involves establishing a social support system to replace the support previously provided by the family. Research has shown that the process of achieving these tasks can be affected by several sources.

Kenny and Rice (1995) and others have shown that the college student's quality of attachment to his or her parents affects the new student's adjustment during the transition to college. Finding family-linked predictors to college adjustment would guide student affairs professionals in devising informational and intervention programs to help students understand and cope with family issues, and to help families provide stronger support for their children as they leave home. Attachment-based interventions might lessen the risk of students dropping out or developing emotional and social problems while at college.

Attachment theory maintains that attachments, affectional ties to one's caregivers that elicit care, protection, and investment (Goldberg, 2000), are of primary importance in stressful situations. Secure attachments provide a person with a sense of belonging and support and with a means to evaluate and cope with the anxiety inherent in new, strange environments. Secure attachment refers to a relationship in which a person is relatively un ambivalent about the wish for contact with the caregiver, seems to view oneself as basically good and loveable, and views the other person as basically trustworthy and responsive (Bowlby, 1973). The more securely attached a person is, the more confident he or she is to explore and master a new environment (Ainsworth, 1989; Mahler, Pine, & Bergman, 1975). Secure attachment is also thought to promote emotional regulation, such that a person is able to manage anxiety, depression, and anger during periods of stress and when others are temporarily unavailable (Kobak, Cole, Ferenz-Gillies, Fleming, & Gamble, 1993; Lopez & Brennan, 2000).

Although three and four patterns of attachment styles (i.e., secure, insecure-anxious, insecure-avoidant, and insecure-fearful/disorganized) are described in attachment studies, recent research indicates that a two-dimensional model may underlie these categories of adult attachment (Crowell, Fraley, & Shaver, 1999). Overall attachment security, representing the continuum from secure to all forms of insecure attachment, is a particularly significant dimension (Gallo, Smith, & Ruiz, 2003; Vivona, 2000).

A number of studies have demonstrated that attachment to parents is predictive of a variety of adjustment indicators for college, including social, academic, and personal/psychological functioning (Hinderlie & Kenny, 2002; Lopez & Gormley, 2002; Rice, Fitzgerald, Whaley, & Gibbs, 1995), perceived stress and coping styles (McCarthy, Moller, & Fouladi, 2001), and social competence (Rice, Cunningham, & Young, 1997). Although attachment to parents has at times been considered a unitary construct (e.g., Kenny, 1987), recent studies have shown that children have different levels of attachment to each parent (Collins & Read, 1994), and that attachment to one parent only correlates moderately with attachment to the other parent (e.g., Lopez, Melendez, & Rice, 2000). Furthermore, attachment to each parent is differentially predictive of adjustment, mood, and perceived stress (McCarthy et al.).

That mothers and fathers might create different qualities of attachment is consistent with the gender socialization literature. The gender socialization literature suggests that men's and women's identities are often based on different sources, with a greater emphasis on interpersonal relationships for women and on independence and personal achievement for men (Gilligan, 1982). Because of these socialization differences, the quality of mothers' and fathers' attachments with their children may vary even if the level of attachment security is similar. This qualitative difference might result in differential predictions of adjustment for the child. For example, Rice et al. (1997) found that attachment to father was a much stronger predictor of social adjustment for males and for Black students than was attachment to mother. McCarthy et al. (2001) found attachment to father more strongly predictive of less perceived stress than attachment to mother. Furthermore, Lopez et al. (2000) reported that low care by the father predicted adult attachment anxiety and avoidance and father overprotection predicted adult attachment avoidance for students from intact families. Neither the amount of care by the mother nor mother overprotection predicted either attachment dimension in Lopez et al.'s sample.

As a child grows older, relationships with friends and intimate partners assume as much importance as the earlier parental relationships. The quality of the attachment to parents is thought to be the basis by which a person develops good relationships with others, primarily through internalized "working models" of self and others (Bowlby, 1973, 1988). These cognitive/emotional schemas are theorized to become the template for establishing adult relationships beyond the family. Thus, attachment to romantic partners and peers in young adulthood is directly related to attachment to parents (Carnelley, Pietromonaco, & Jaffe, 1994; Main, Kaplan, & Cassidy, 1985), and peer relationships become a replacement for the support earlier provided by the family (Hinderlie & Kenny, 2002). The quality of these adult relationships has been shown to affect an individual's methods of coping with the stresses of adult life (Lopez & Gormley, 2002).

Because attachment to parents is an important predictor of college adjustment, one can reasonably assume that certain events may alter young adults' attachment and therefore affect their psychological and social adjustment. Certainly temperament and other dispositional elements of children and parents may affect the strength of the attachment that is formed, but interpersonal events such as interfamily conflict and alteration of the family structure through divorce or separation may affect attachment as well.

Family Conflict
Research on children's adjustment suggests that family conflict results in adjustment problems (David, Steele, Forehand, & Armistead, 1996; Nelson, Hughes, Handal, Katz, & Searight, 1993). Conflict within the home has been found to have a negative effect on many aspects of children's functioning, such as expressions of aggression (Weidner, Hutt, Conner, & Mendell, 1992), sociability and control problems (Kronenberger & Thompson, 1990), suicidal ideation (Asarnow, 1992), adolescent self-concept/self-esteem (Farber, Feiner, & Primavera, 1985; Raschke & Raschke, 1979), ego identity formation (Nelson et al., 1993), psychological distress (Grych & Fincham, 1993; Harold & Conger, 1997) and adjustment (Kenny & Donaldson, 1991; Richardson & McCabe, 2001). For boys, conflict between parents has also been linked to mood and somatic problems (Simons, Whitbeck, Beaman, & Conger, 1994). Feenstra, Banyard, Rines, and Hopkins (2001) and Lopez, Campbell, and Watkins (1988) found that family/marital conflict affects a young adult's adjustment to college. Parental attachment may be a key intervening variable between conflict and adjustment. That is, family conflict may affect psychological and social adjustment by disrupting young adults' attachment to their parents (Kline, Johnston, & Tschann, 1991).

The Effect of Divorce
Empirical studies suggest that changes in family structure, such as divorce, affect children's emotional adjustment and antisocial behavior. A variety of causal pathways have been suggested to account for the effects of divorce, such as economic hardships, reduction in parenting competence, increase in parental problems, and children's adoption of a deviant peer group (Conger & Chao, 1996; Hetherington, Bridges, & Insabella, 1998; Simons & Chao, 1996). Although most children cope with the divorce of their parents with only temporary difficulties, the percentage of children who develop problems is 2 to 2 Â½ times as high as for children in intact families (Hetherington & Clingempeel, 1992).

The effect of divorce on young adults is not clear, however. Feenstra et al. (2001) found no relationship between family structure (i.e., divorce) and adaptation to college. McIntyre, Heron, McIntyre, Burton, and Engler (2003), in contrast, found that divorce predicted college student maladjustment and distress. White, Brinkerhoff, and Booth (1985) reported that college students raised by a single parent were just as attached to the custodial parent (typically the mother) as were students who were brought up in an intact household. Yet Lopez et al. (2000) found that college students from divorced families reported relationships with parents as less warm and caring than did students from intact families, an effect particularly strong among White students.

Divorce may have the greatest effect on attachment to the non custodial parent, typically the father. Divorce often results in fathers becoming more peripheral to the daily life of the child. Although frequency of visitation by a non custodial father is unrelated to child adjustment (King, 1994), the quality of the relationship with the father may be altered by a divorce such that a non custodial father becomes more of a friend to his children and less of a "parent" (Simons, 1996). When non custodial fathers remain engaged in parenting behaviors, adolescents are less likely to show adjustment problems such as fighting, non-compliance, delinquent behavior, and poor school performance (Simons et al., 1994). A less secure attachment to the father is likely a risk factor for the adjustment of a student entering college.

Divorce is sometimes a solution to unresolved conflict within a family. Certainly, physical separation can lessen opportunities for ongoing hostility. Yet, parental conflict may continue and even accelerate after a divorce (Hetherington, Stanley-Hagan, & Anderson, 1989). Continued parental conflict may affect parent-child relationships. Buchanan, Maccoby, and Dornbusch (1991), in their study on adolescents in divorced families, discovered that adolescents who were drawn into parental conflicts, or who were anxious about parental loyalty issues, had difficulty adjusting psychologically. Children in high conflict families have more psychological problems than those in divorced families or in intact families with low conflict. In high conflict families, divorce improves the adjustment of children (Amato, Loomis, & Booth, 1995). Thus, divorce may have differential positive and negative effects on young adults, potentially reducing the attachment and availability of parental figures, but possibly also changing the amount of conflict a child experiences.

In this study we sought to integrate research in attachment, adjustment to college, family conflict, and family structure (divorce). We tested the following hypotheses:
1. Attachment to mother, attachment to father, family structure, and family conflict would separately predict students' psychological distress and social adjustment.
2. Family conflict and structure would predict attachment to mother and attachment to father.
3. Family conflict would moderate the relationship between parental attachment and psychological distress and social adjustment.

METHOD
Participants
One hundred and two first-year college students enrolled at a large public Midwestern university participated in this study. These students represented a sample of convenience and were volunteers recruited from large undergraduate classes in Educational Psychology. Out of the original 102 students, 6 individuals were dropped from further analysis due to incomplete questionnaires, and 1 was dropped due to an unusual family situation. Thus, the final sample was composed of 95 first-year college students. Participants ranged in age from 18 to 20, with a mean age of 18.4 years and a standard deviation of .52. Thirty-seven (39%) were men and 58 (61%) were women. Sixty-five (68%) of the participants were Caucasian, 17 (18%) were African American, 6 (6%) were Asian American, 4 (4%) were Hispanic, and one (1%) was biracial. Two participants did not report their ethnic background. Most of the participants (approximately 78%) reported coming from intact, two-biological-parent homes; 17% reported experiencing a divorce in their families. Approximately 5% of participants' parents had never been married.

Instruments
Demographics and Family Type. This questionnaire consisted of questions relating to ethnicity, age, sex, family structure (divorce, remarriage), and family composition. Participants who indicated that their parents had divorced were also asked their age at the time of the divorce.

Quality of Parental Attachment. Attachment to parents was measured with the Parental Attachment Questionnaire (PAQ) Kenny, 1987), a 55-item measure designed to apply Ainsworth, Blehar, Waters, and Wally's (1978) conception of the attachment bond (via infants and toddlers) to adolescents and young adults. The PAQ assesses participants' interest and affect in interacting with parents; perceptions of parental availability, respect, and encouraged autonomy; the degree to which they seek assistance from parents in stressful situations; and satisfaction with parental assistance (Kenny & Donaldson, 1991). These dimensions are measured with three sub scales: Affective Quality of Attachment, Parental Fostering of Autonomy, and Parental Role in Providing Emotional Support. For each item, respondents indicated how true the item was for their relationships with their parents on a scale of 1 (not at all) to 5 (very much). Kenny and Donaldson used a single rating for both parents, because previous research showed that the general family relationship was more influential in terms of adolescents' adjustment than were relationships with either parent. Additionally, Kenny found no significant differences between the ratings given for mothers and those given for fathers. However, recent studies (e.g., McCarthy et al., 2001) have shown differences between attachment to mother and father. Thus, participants were asked to provide separate ratings for mothers and fathers. Kenny reported a sample that showed PAQ scores to have a test-retest reliability of .92 for a 2-week period and Cronbach's alpha coefficients of .95 for female college students and .93 for male college students. In this study, all three scales were combined to form a single attachment score for each parent.

Scores on the PAQ sub scales have been positively associated with self-esteem and amount of social support, and negatively associated with separation anxiety, depression, anxiety, and physical symptoms (Holmbeck & Wandrei, 1993; Kenny & Donaldson, 1991).

Family Conflict. Family conflict was assessed via a modified version of the Conflict subscale of the Family Environment Scale (FES) (Moos et al., 1974). The original sub scale is comprised of nine items, with each item rated as true or false with respect to the participant's family. Higher scores on the Conflict sub scale indicate a family environment characterized by open expressions of hostility, aggression, and discord.

To separate parental conflict or parent-participant conflict from other conflict (e.g., sibling conflict), this scale was modified. Participants were asked to rate each of the nine items for three separate relationships: mother-father, mother-participant, and father-participant. Thus, the modified scale was composed of 27 items, rather than 9, and scored such that items endorsed as true were given a score of 2 and items endorsed as false were given a score of 1. Higher scores on this modified conflict scale represent increased conflict among the parents or between the parents and participant.

The validity of the FES is evidenced by its accurate prediction of increased conflict in clinically distressed families (Moos et al., 1974). Perosa and Perosa (1990), Roosa and Beals (1990a), and Roosa and Beals (1990b) have reported adequate validity information on the FES, including convergent and discriminant validity. Test-retest reliability in a Moos et al. sample was reported as .85, and internal consistency reliability for this sub scale was estimated to be .75.

Psychological Distress. The Brief Symptom Inventory (BSI) (Derogatis, 1992) was used to assess psychological distress. The BSI is a 53-item abbreviated version of the Hopkins Symptom Checklist-90 (SCL-90). The BSI consists of nine dimensions: Somatization, Obsessive-Compulsive, Interpersonal Sensitivity, Depression, Anxiety, Hostility, Phobic Anxiety, Paranoid Ideation, and Psychoticism. Respondents indicate the degree to which each symptom has affected them in the past 7 days on a 5-point scale, from 0 (not at all) to 4 (extremely). Factor analyses of the BSI and related scales suggest that a single dimension may underlie the measure (see Piersma, Boes, & Reaume, 1994). Thus, the Global Severity Index (GSI), the average score on all the items, was used as a measure of respondents' overall distress, with higher scores representing more distress. Derogatis reported the test-retest reliability for the GSI in a sample measured over a 2-week period as .90. Because BSI norms did not include a college student sample, raw scores (instead of standard scores) were used in data analyses.

Social Adjustment. Social adjustment was assessed using the Social Adjustment sub scale of the Student Adaptation to College Questionnaire (SACQ) (Baker & Siryk, 1989). This sub scale consists of 20 items designed to measure the degree to which college students successfully negotiate interpersonal encounters on and off campus. Respondents indicate how applicable each item is to his or her college experiences on a scale of 1 (applies very closely) to 9 (doesn't apply at all). Higher scores represent better social adjustment to college.

Cronbach's alpha coefficients on previous samples for the Social Adjustment sub scale scores range from .83 to .91 (Baker & Siryk, 1986). Criterion validity is evidenced by negative correlations between scores on the Social Adjustment sub scale and student attrition (Brooks & Dubois, 1995). Additionally, the sub scale correlates .47 with a measure of participation in social events (Baker & Siryk, 1986), and -.66 to -.79 with the UCLA Loneliness scale (Russell, Peplau, &Cutrona, 1978, 1980).

Procedure
Students were broadly informed of the purposes of the study and participated in return for course credit. All students completed a packet of questionnaires at a single sitting, consisting of a consent form, a demographics questionnaire, a modified version of the PAQ (Kenny, 1987), a modified version of the Conflict sub scale of the FES (Moos et al., 1974), the Social Adjustment sub scale of the SACQ (Baker & Siryk, 1989), and the BSI (Derogatis, 1992). Students completed the demographics form first; all other measures in the packet were arranged in random order. Following their participation, students were debriefed and provided referral information for campus services if they requested.

Data Preparation and Analysis
Several of the participants had a missing data point from a particular measure. When only one item in a measure was missing, an average of the other completed items in the measure was calculated and inserted as the missing data point. More substantial missing data resulted in the participant being dropped from the sample.

Zero-order correlations between the predictor variables (attachment to mother, attachment to father, family conflict, and family structure) and the outcome variables (psychological distress and social adjustment) were used to test the relationship among the predictor and outcome variables. We used multiple regression using the entire set of predictors plus gender to determine the relative strength of these variables in predicting the outcome variables. As recommended by Baron and Kenny (1986), we used a special form of hierarchical multiple regression to test the hypotheses regarding family conflict as a moderator of the relationship between attachment and adjustment.

RESULTS
Scale Characteristics
Full-scale characteristics for each measure used in this study can be found in Table 1. All measures were judged to have adequate internal reliabilities in this sample.

Two groups were created to measure family structure. The intact group included students whose parents had never divorced (N = 76). The non intact group included participants who reported divorce or remarriage in their family of origin (N = 19).

Correlations
Zero-order correlation coefficients were calculated between all the variables (see Table 2). As predicted, attachment to mother and attachment to father were significantly related to less psychological distress and better social adjustment. The predicted relationship between family conflict and psychological distress was also found; students who experienced more conflict in their family also reported more psychological distress. However, family structure was unrelated to either psychological distress or social adjustment. For the 19 students who reported that their parents were divorced, their average age at the time of divorce was 9.5 years. The correlation between age at divorce and the major predictor and outcome variables for these 19 individuals showed no significant results.

Family conflict had a moderate negative relationship with attachment to mother and attachment to father. Family structure was unrelated to attachment to mother, but significantly related to attachment to father. Thus, although the direction of causality is unclear, divorce is much more negatively connected to loss of attachment to the father than to the mother. In addition, students in the divorced group showed a much higher variability in their attachment ratings of their fathers, almost 50% greater variance than the intact group.

Regression Analyses
To test the hypothesis that attachment to parents, family conflict, and family structure would all add predictive power in students' psychological distress and social adjustment, two separate multiple regressions were performed, one for each outcome variable. Because previous research is mixed on whether gender is a factor in attachment and conflict ratings, gender was included as a predictor for the regression equations. The results of this multiple regression analysis using psychological distress as a outcome variable are presented in Table 3.

The resultant multiple correlation (R^sup 2^ = .214) was significant. Examination of the various variables showed that only attachment to mother contributed significantly to this effect. The semi-partial correlation (i.e., with all other variables excluded) between attachment to mother and psychological distress was .313. In contrast, the semi-partial correlation between attachment to father and psychological distress was .138.

Table 4 shows the results for the regression equations using social adjustment as a outcome variable. The multiple correlation (R^sup 2^) for this model was .259, which is significant. The resulting regression equation indicated that two predictors contributed to the social adjustment to college. The strongest predictor was attachment to father (Î² = .481; p

Family Conflict as a Moderator
To test if family conflict would change (moderate) the relationship between attachment and adjustment, the independent variables (attachment to mother and attachment to father) and the proposed moderator variable (family conflict) were first centered, a procedure recommended by Holmbeck (1997). Then, a hierarchical regression (recommended by Baron and Kenny, 1986) was used in which the predictor (independent) variable was entered into the regression equation first, the potential moderator variable entered second, and the predictor-moderator interaction term entered into the equation last. A moderating effect is demonstrated if the interaction term is significant. None of the regression equations yielded a significant interaction term. Thus, family conflict did not moderate the relationship between attachment to mother or father and social adjustment or psychological distress.

DISCUSSION
The primary purpose of this study was to test the differential relationships between attachment to parents, family structure, family conflict, and adjustment to college, and to determine whether family conflict moderated the relationship between attachment to parents and college adjustment. The results indicated that the strongest predictors of students' psychological distress and social adjustment to college were attachment to mother and attachment to father, similar to results from a number of other studies (Hinderlie & Kenny, 2002; Rice et al., 1997). As expected, attachment to mother and father showed differential effects on adjustment.

Maternal and Paternal Attachment
One of the strongest and most consistent predictors of both psychological distress and social adjustment to college was attachment to mother. Although attachment to mother was slightly weaker in the prediction of social adjustment than in the prediction of psychological symptoms, overall, this variable had the most effect on students' reports of their adaptation to the college environment. This result is consistent with previous literature, both with respect to the relationship between attachment and general adjustment (e.g., Ainsworth et al., 1978; Belsky & Cassidy, 1994; Bowlby, 1988; Kenny, Lomax, Brabeck, & Fife, 1998), as well as that between attachment to mother and adjustment (Carnelly et al., 1994). Furthermore, this result is consistent with Ainsworth et al., who argued that attachment to one's primary caregiver (typically one's mother) could influence whether or not a child felt comfortable exploring new environments in the absence of that primary caregiver.

Attachment to father functions in a somewhat different manner than does attachment to mother. The effect of attachment to father on psychological distress was weaker than that of attachment to mother and when the two variables were included in the same regression equation, attachment to father contributed little to the multiple correlation. However, the effect of attachment to father on social adjustment was stronger than that of attachment to mother, and when these variables were both used as predictors, attachment to father was the main contributor to the multiple correlation. These results are consistent with those of Rice et al. (1997), who examined the effects of maternal and paternal attachment on social adjustment and emotional well-being (i.e., the absence of psychological distress) and found that attachment to father was a stronger predictor of social competence than attachment to mother.

An explanation for the findings that (a) attachment to father is a stronger predictor of social adjustment whereas (b) attachment to mother is a stronger predictor of psychological distress, comes from the gender socialization literature. As mentioned earlier, this literature suggests that men's and women's identities are often based on different sources, with a greater emphasis on interpersonal relationships for female identity development, and on independence and personal achievement for male identity development (Gilligan, 1982). Chodorow (1989) further noted that the social roles of fathers primarily take place outside of the family, whereas the social roles of mothers have traditionally occurred within the family, though these distinctions continue to fade. Taken together, mothers may be more attentive to the quality of their relations with their children, and hence to their children's psychological states, whereas fathers may be more attentive to the quality of their children's relationships outside of the family.

These differential orientations for men and women suggest that fathers and mothers may promote different aspects of a secure attachment. Secure attachment provides both a sense of security and the encouragement of autonomy and exploration. The attentive and supportive relationships often provided by mothers may contribute most strongly to a sense of security and lead to containment of psychological distress. The emphasis on independence and autonomy often promoted by fathers may contribute most strongly to the development of social competence and interest in relationships outside of the family. Of course, both mothers and fathers provide both aspects of secure attachment, yet subtle gender-linked differences may occur.

Family Conflict
In this study, the effect of conflict was mostly indirect: conflict altered attachment strength, which in turn was related to social adjustment and psychological distress. Although family conflict predicted psychological distress, it did not provide significant additional prediction of psychological distress once attachment to mother was part of the regression. The pattern of correlations in these data implies that attachment to mother mediates the effect of conflict on psychological distress.

The finding that family conflict was not significantly correlated with social adjustment and did not moderate the relationship between attachment and social adjustment was contrary to prediction. Attachment theorists have proposed that a person develops an internal working model of relationships from early attachment relationships that then provides a basis of adult friendships. If a young adult's family relationships are conflictual, it is expected that his/her friendships would also tend to be disrupted. For example, Hayashi and Strickland (1998) investigated the effects of divorce and parental conflict on adult children's attachment patterns. They found that young adults who reported witnessing parental conflict or had rejecting parents were more likely to report negative experiences in their romantic relationships (e.g., feeling jealous) than were young adults who did not have these experiences. Participants with an accepting parent appeared to be resilient to the potentially negative outcomes of the divorce. In contrast, Lopez, Campbell, and Watkins (1989) found that marital conflict did not have a strong impact on college students' adjustment if the students had achieved a degree of emotional separation.

Of course, the results of this study must be considered in light of the sample characteristics. Based on their scale scores, participants came from families with low levels of conflict. For example, the sample average for the FES conflict score indicated that only 5 out of 27 items were endorsed, which by extrapolation is over a standard deviation below the mean of non clinic families reported in the original sample by Moos et al. (1974). It is likely that interfamily conflict must reach a certain level before the effects shown in other studies on conflict and social adjustment can be demonstrated; if so, then that level was probably not attained in the current study.

Family Structure
The significant relationship between family structure and family conflict was an expected outcome. Conflict is one of the most common contributors to divorce. However, it was surprising that family structure was not significantly related to psychological distress, social adjustment, or attachment to mother, but was negatively related to attachment to father. When a divorce takes place, mothers frequently retain custody of the children, although fathers have visitation rights. Thus, the children frequently see their mothers and less frequently spend time with their fathers. This decrease in the time children spend with their fathers may alter the strength of attachment between children and fathers.

Family structure, family conflict, and attachment to father are probably interconnected. Sequentially, family conflict usually precedes a divorce, and both the conflict and structural changes reduce the strength of the father-child attachment. Divorce may result in reduced conflict in a family, but the reduction in the father-child attachment may endure.

Gender Differences
There were no significant gender differences in any of the variables in the study. This finding runs counter to the majority of research in the area of attachment and adjustment. Although a few studies did not reveal gender differences on various variables (e.g., Armsden & Greenberg, 1987; Rice & Whaley, 1994), most researchers examined results separately for men and women, either based on a pre specified hypothesis (e.g., Greenberger & McLaughlin, 1998; Kenny, Lomax, Brabeck, & Fife, 1998), or based on preliminary analyses that suggested gender differences (e.g., Kenny & Donaldson, 1991; Rice et al, 1997).

Participants' fields of study may have contributed to the lack of gender-related results. The participants in this study were all enrolled in education courses. Men taking education courses may not be representative of men's attitudes in more traditional courses of study and may share more attitudes traditionally associated with female roles.

Implications for Student Affairs Professionals
Student affairs professionals should be attuned to the family relationships of entering students, because these relationships are predictive of adjustment. Although traditional-aged entering students (i.e., 17 to 19 years old) are often separating from and changing their relationships with their families, the impact of parental relationships is still substantial. An obvious place to attend to family relationships is in a transition program for first-year students. Information can be provided about normal reactions to "leaving home," about common ways of coping with such separation, and the importance of renegotiating their relationships with their parents. In addition, new students can be alerted to the complicating problems posed by strained relations with parents, family conflict, and divorce.

Student affairs professionals can also create various psychoeducational workshops that provide students with information about the relationship between their family dynamics and current social and psychological distress. Students from conflicted families can be invited to identify themselves for participation in preventive programs aimed at destigmatizing these problems, providing them with alternative forms of social support, and fostering effective psychological coping strategies. Because many students are seeking to separate from their family of origin, they may minimize the connection between current psychological and social problems and family issues. By drawing students' attention to the potential links between college adjustment and family history, they may be more willing to identify problems at an earlier, less severe stage.

Colleges may benefit students by organizing peer-support groups and by facilitating social relationships among students. Peer support is an important buffer for students, especially those with attachment difficulties. Peer groups and social relationships may provide students with the interpersonal support they need to facilitate the college adjustment process.

Although complicated by privacy laws, many scholars (e.g., Hinderlie & Kenny, 2002, Moller, McCarthy, & Fouladi, 2002) have espoused the potential benefits of student affairs professionals facilitating communication and support between college students and their families. The traditional parents' weekend activities could include much more than sports and entertainment, such as dialogue groups for parents and students to discuss a variety of relationship issues. In addition, promoting greater identification of the student with the faculty and the institution will likely help new students transition between a home community and a new college community. Creative small group activities in both academic and social environments (e.g., small classes, living on campus, intentional social events, etc.) may help a student develop a feeling of belonging and connection to the college.

Limitations
Although attachment, family conflict, and family structure may contribute to students' college adjustment, it is important to remember that many other personal and social variables also contribute to adjustment, such as resilience, self-efficacy, extended family relationships, racial/ethnic climate, and economic background. Future researchers should consider a broader investigation of attachment and family variables along with more intrapsychic and social climate variables to gain a fuller picture of student adjustment.

Some recent research has shown that ethnic/racial groups may differ with regard to attachment variables and whether or not these variables predict college adjustment (e.g., Lopez et al., 2000). Due to the small sample size of ethnic/racial minority students, differences due to racial/ethnic background could not be compared. Thus, the results of this study are likely more applicable to White students than to ethnic/racial minority students.

A limitation of the current study is that it is based on a sample of convenience and may not be generalizeable to students in other settings. The sample was mostly White and female, and was collected entirely from classes in educational psychology. Students taking educational psychology classes may differ in their attitudes and attentiveness toward personal and family relationships, because a high percentage of these students are planning to go into teaching or other education-related fields.

Another limitation is that this study focused only on ratings of interfamily relationships from the perspective of one family member at one time. Such ratings can be biased by personal defensiveness, social desirability, and inaccurate memory. Furthermore, data collected only one time cannot be used to make causal inferences. In addition, our modifications of the FES and the PAQ instruments may have introduced measurement problems in these scales that alter their interpretation from previously published research.

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James W. Hannum is Clinical Associate Professor of Educational Psychology at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Dawn M. Dvorak, a former graduate student at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, is now at Carle Clinic, Urbana, IL.

Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to James W. Hannum, 13 10 S. 6th Street, Champaign, IL 61820; jwhannum@uiuc.edu