| Summary: | Sexual motivations are one of the underlying psychosocial factors which
influence sexual expression. Individuals are sexually motivated for a variety of reasons.
For example, some may engage in sexual activity for intimacy needs, while others may
behave sexually to increase self-confidence. Understanding sexual motivations becomes
particularly important during adolescence, as motivations are likely to guide socio-sexual
development during subsequent years of adulthood. Attachment theory explains that
diverse motivations are cultivated as a result of attachment styles. Existing research uses
the adult-adult attachment model to assess sex motives. This thesis extends previous
research (e.g. Schachner, D.A. & Shaver, P.R., 2004) by analyzing the link between
parent-adolescent attachments and sex motives. More specifically, this research addresses
the question of whether adolescents' perceived congruent and incongruent attachment
styles to parents are related to five sex motives: intimacy, enhancement, self-affirmation,
peer and partner approval sex motives. The "incomplete buffering hypothesis"
(Verschueren & Marcoen, 1999, p. 185) guides hypotheses concerning incongruent
attachment styles. The incomplete buffering hypothesis refers to the partial averaging of
incongruent attachments. The combination of one secure attachment to one parent buffers
the effects of an insecure attachment to the other parent.
Two hundred and forty-four adolescents from a Vancouver secondary school were
administered the Sex Motives Scale (SMS; Cooper, Powers, & Shaprio, 1998), five
additional sex motive items (Schachner & Shaver, 2004) and the Adolescent Attachment
Questionnaire (AAQ; West, Rose, Spreng, Sheldon-Keller, & Adam, 1998).
Cluster analyses did not produce theoretically justifiable preoccupied classifications. Given that the preoccupied group could not be included in ANOVA
models; post hoc analyses enabled further exploration between the relationship of
adolescents' perceived maternal and paternal attachment security and sex motives by
means of Ordinary Least Square (OLS) hierarchical regressions.
Findings from ANOVA tests indicate that adolescents' perceived attachments to
parents were significantly related to their intimacy and self-affirmation sex motives,
where the latter generally supports the buffering hypothesis. Results from post hoc
analyses indicate interaction effects between maternal and paternal attachment security
on intimacy and enhancement sex motives, and a main effect between paternal
attachment and self-affirmation sex motives. T-tests found adolescent males score
significantly higher than adolescent females on enhancement and peer approval sex
motives. Both ANOVA and regression analysis found unexpected findings where males
score higher on self-affirmation sex motives than females. The results are discussed in
regards to the theoretical implications of multiple attachment organizations as well as the
practical implications for adolescent sexual health. === Education, Faculty of === Educational and Counselling Psychology, and Special Education (ECPS), Department of === Graduate
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