As mentor teachers hold the balance of power in the relationship, how do they build and sustain positive mentor-mentee relationships? This study involved 11 pairs of mentors and mentees (n = 22) with audio-recorded interviews to explore their relationships, mentors’ support and mentors’ expectations for mentees’ involvement in the school. Findings suggested ways to build and sustain mentoring relationships (e.g., professionalism, respect, and support). Indeed, support in providing information for planning, access to resources, two-way dialoguing with feedback and reflections, and establishing safe, risk-taking environments to trial and evaluate newly learnt teaching practices were considered as ways to build and sustain relationships.

This study examined the factor structure, reliability, and convergent and divergent validity of the Caregiving Questionnaire (CQ; Kunce & Shaver, 1994) with a sample of individuals who identify themselves as gay, lesbian, and bisexual and are currently involved in same-sex couple relationships (N = 143; 114 females). An exploratory factor analysis extracted the CQ's four dimensions, supporting its construct validity. Additionally, the questionnaire demonstrated acceptable internal consistency. Correlations were found among participants’ self-reported romantic attachment patterns, as evaluated by the Experiences in Close Relationships (ECR; Brennan, Clark, & Shaver, 1998), and caregiving patterns, as measured by the CQ. No significant associations were found between the four factors and participants’ age, relationship duration, or gross annual revenue. Results support the use of the CQ with individuals involved in same-sex relationships.

Satisfactory couple relationships are demonstrated to have a myriad of benefits. However, the ability to establish couple satisfaction is shown to be strongly and negatively impacted by insecure romantic attachment patterns (i.e., anxious and avoidant attachment). This study sought to gain an enhanced understanding of the aforementioned link by means of investigating a novel mediator model incorporating two facets of romantic commitment: approach commitment (the desire to maintain a relationship due to benefits inherent within this) and avoidance commitment (the desire to maintain a relationship to avoid potential losses resulting from relationship dissolution). Bootstrap analyses demonstrated that insecure attachments were differentially related to commitment goals, such that anxious attachment was related with higher approach and avoidance commitment. Conversely, while avoidant attachment was negatively linked with approach commitment goals, no relation was revealed with avoidance commitment goals. Additionally, results demonstrated that one's idiosyncratic commitment goals partially mediated the strongly established link between insecure attachment and couple satisfaction.

This study integrated the investment model and attachment theory to examine: (1) whether the link between friendship attachment and commitment would be mediated by relationship features of satisfaction, quality of alternatives, and investment size; and (2) whether these mediation processes would function at the intrapersonal (actor) and interpersonal (partner) levels. The sample included 120 pairs of same-sex friends (78 pairs of women). Data were analysed with the Actor-Partner Interdependence Mediation Model (APIMeM). Mediated actor effects suggest that individuals high in attachment avoidance are less satisfied with and invest less in their current friendship; these in turn, lead them to show less commitment. Furthermore, individuals high in attachment anxiety invest more in their current friendship, which in turn leads to higher commitment. Mediated partner effects suggest that individuals high in attachment avoidance have a friend who feels less satisfied with, invests less, and shows low commitment in their current friendship. The current study demonstrated that a dyadic design is useful in illustrating the dynamics of commitment between close friends.

This study investigated the relationship between adolescent self-esteem and maternal parenting style, using the four-style typology identified by Maccoby and Martin (1983). Additionally, the researchers considered whether it was more pragmatic to conceptualise parenting style as two separate co-occurring dimensions of parenting: responsiveness and demandingness. Male and female adolescents (N = 140, mean age 14.73 years, 64% female) completed questionnaires measuring perceived maternal responsiveness and demandingness, and self-esteem. Consistent with previous research, differences were found between the four parenting styles for adolescent self-esteem. However, maternal responsiveness was demonstrated to be the only significant predictor of adolescent self-esteem (p < .001). The researchers concluded that considering responsiveness and demandingness as separate dimensions, rather than combining them to form discrete categories, provided a more accurate and practical conceptualisation of the relationship between maternal parenting style and adolescent self-esteem.

The ability to take the perspectives of others is considered a prerequisite for effective interpersonal interaction. Despite extensive investigation into the correlates of perspective taking, there have been few previous attempts to understand the process by which people take another's psychological point of view. The purpose of this exploratory study was to identify the strategies used by individuals when attempting to take the perspective of another person. Twelve participants discussed a time they engaged in perspective taking. The analysis revealed that perspective taking was used in situations in which significant negative emotions could arise, and that participants shifted between the use of self-information (e.g., switching places, past experience) and other-information (e.g., target's personal characteristics) during the process of perspective taking. Different emotions and cognitions were associated with taking one's own perspective and taking that of the other person. The study provides a direct consideration of an under-investigated component of social and personal relationships.

The present study examines the influence of attachment style on the communication choices people make in response to relational dissatisfaction and disengagement. A path analysis models these choices, showing that a secure attachment style predicts the use of voice and de-escalation. A preoccupied style predicts neglect, loyalty, and de-escalation. A dismissing-avoidant style also leads to neglect and loyalty, but predicts behavioural de-escalation. Finally, a fearful-avoidant style indicates more limited communication choices and relational exit. The model shows the possibility of strategically made communication choices changing the results of these attachment style outcomes. Pathways through the model show that active communication choices lead to more positive long-term relational outcomes and passive choices predict relational challenges.

For the majority of people, two key non-kin figures form part of the central support clique that resides at the centre of their social network. These are the best friend and the romantic partner, and both play distinct roles which are of benefit to the individual concerned. However, while the romantic partner will always have been chosen in the context of the mating market, we do not know whether the selection of a best friend occurs within a similar market of competition and assessment. This study used real self-rated attribute data for participants and their best friends and romantic partners to explore: (1) whether best friendships operate within a mating market; (2) whether, once established, they show evidence for positive illusion, projection or competition; and (3) whether assortative mating is present. Further, we considered whether the sex of the best friend relative to the participant influences these results. We found that same-sex best friends have an acknowledged role linked to social connectedness and behaviour, that for same-sex best friends both male and female participants show evidence for homophily or projection rather than mate competition, that neither male nor female participants appear to view cross-sex best friends as potential mates, and that the evidence for ‘assortative mating’ is stronger within best friendships than romantic partnerships regardless of best friend sex. Our results imply that despite a culture of commitment and monogamy, male participants display behaviours within their romantic partnerships which suggest they are still active within the mating market. In contrast, for both sexes the best friendship is unaffected by the mating market and the stability and contentment that characterises best friendships is underpinned by a degree of similarity stronger than that within the romantic partnership.

Many studies have shown that guilt is an important moral emotion that motivates reparative actions in order to maintain positive interpersonal relationships. However, when the victim of an offence does not have a close relationship with the transgressor or when the intensity of the whole experience is irrelevant or excessive, people can adopt different strategies to cope with their feelings of guilt. The paper aims to investigate the relation between interpersonal relationships, responsibility taking elicited by moral transgressions and coping strategies. Results show that experiences of guilt vary on the basis of the degree of closeness with the harmed person. The closeness of the relational bond between transgressor and victim also affects the global intensity of the experience of guilt (made of a set of correlated emotions), thus favoring the choice of self or other-oriented strategies to cope with guilt. Global low intensities of guilt tend to favor self-oriented strategies, while wrongdoings that elicit high emotional intensities are often considered too serious and thus irreparable. Medium intensities of guilt experiences are more frequently managed through adaptive, other-oriented strategies.

The attachment system is responsible for emotional-motivational bonding with others and is associated with individual emotion regulation strategies (avoidance-disengagement; anxiety-hypervigilance); however, little is known how these individual differences in emotion regulation strategies influence partners’ interpersonal emotional experiences. Prior research examining the link between individual differences in attachment avoidance and anxiety and emotional connectedness in couples has interestingly shown counter-intuitive effects of individual attachment styles on couples’ shared emotions, such that attachment anxiety was associated with the lowest levels of emotional synchrony (Butner, Diamond, & Hicks, 2007). These results beg for additional research on whether and how individual differences in attachment styles moderate the transmission of emotion between partners. Using daily diaries and second-by-second measures of emotional experience from 30 couples, it was hypothesised that couples high in attachment avoidance (disengagement) would show lower levels, whereas couples high in attachment anxiety (hypervigilance) would show higher levels of emotion transmission. Results were counter to our predictions; attachment avoidance increased — and attachment anxiety decreased — emotion transmission between partners. Findings suggest attachment dynamics may not have the same effect on couples’ joint emotional functioning in a dyadic context as they do on individuals’ emotional functioning.