Ackerman, Kirrilly (2020) An exploration of demographic differences in relationship sabotage. Honours thesis, University of Southern Queensland. (Unpublished)
Abstract
Relationship issues is the third most common reason why individuals seek counselling. One factor leading to relationship issues is romantic self-sabotage. Romantic self-sabotage can be defined as self-destructive attitudes or behaviours that impede the success of the relationship or withdraw effort and justify failure. While the literature provides a vast discussion of individuals’ motives for self-sabotage, there is limited evidence to explain how individual differences can impact relationship sabotage. The current study’s aim was to investigate how differences in age, gender, and sexual orientation affect self-sabotage in relationships. An online survey was conducted with 599 participants from across the globe, including the three constructs from the Relationship Self-Sabotage Scale (RSSS): defensiveness, trust difficulty and lack of relationship skills. It was hypothesised that with age, lack of relationship skills would decrease, that men were more likely to be defensive, and that non-heterosexual people would be higher in trust difficulty. Comparisons using independent t-tests found non-significant results for gender and sexual orientation, but showed a trend that men were higher in defensiveness, and non-heterosexual people were higher in trust difficulty. A one-way between subjects ANOVA for age found that individuals in the middle adulthood age group are significantly higher in lack of relationship skills than younger adulthood. Ultimately, this study has shown novel trends in how age, gender and sexual orientation may impact romantic self-sabotage. Future directions include further refinement of the RSSS, and how attachment style, length of relationships, and number of children moderates the relationship between demographics and self-sabotage.
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| Item Type: | Thesis (Non-Research) (Honours) |
|---|---|
| Item Status: | Live Archive |
| Additional Information: | Current UniSQ staff and students can request access to this thesis. Please email research.repository@unisq.edu.au with a subject line of SEAR thesis request and provide: Name of the thesis requested and Your name and UniSQ email address |
| Faculty/School / Institute/Centre: | Historic - Faculty of Health, Engineering and Sciences - School of Psychology and Counselling (1 Jan 2015 - 31 Dec 2021) |
| Supervisors: | Raquel Peel |
| Qualification: | Bachelor of Science (Honours) |
| Date Deposited: | 06 May 2025 01:51 |
| Last Modified: | 06 May 2025 02:00 |
| Uncontrolled Keywords: | Relationship Self-Sabotage; Relationship Breakdown; Attachment Styles; Demographic Differences; Age; Gender; Sexual Orientation |
| Fields of Research (2008): | 17 Psychology and Cognitive Sciences > 1799 Other Psychology and Cognitive Sciences > 179999 Psychology and Cognitive Sciences not elsewhere classified |
| Fields of Research (2020): | 52 PSYCHOLOGY > 5299 Other psychology > 529999 Other psychology not elsewhere classified |
| URI: | https://sear.unisq.edu.au/id/eprint/52097 |
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