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As a concept, romantic intimacy may be examined through Schaefer and Olson's (1981) measure, the Personal Assessment of Intimacy in Relationships (PAIR), which identified five dimensions of intimacy: emotional, intellectual, recreational, sexual, and social intimacy. Moore, McCabe, and Stockdale's (1998) attempt to replicate this five-factor model was not successful, and they instead proposed a three-factor model of intimacy: engagement, communication, and shared friendships. The objective of the present study was to examine the psychometric properties of the PAIR with individuals involved in same-sex couple relationships using these two models. Three hundred fifty participants completed the PAIR, the Experiences in Close Relationships, and the brief 4-item version of the Dyadic Adjustment Scale. Confirmatory factor analyses were not able to replicate both the original five-factor structure and the proposed three-factor structure of the PAIR. Rather, results supported the factor structure, reliability, and concurrent validity of our revised version of Moore et al.'s (1998) three-factor model of intimacy, which retained the three dimensions after various modifications (i.e., addition of covariance terms, deletion of an item, and transference of items) were made. Links were found between these three dimensions of intimacy and insecure romantic attachment, as well as relationship happiness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The overarching objective of this study was to examine a novel model investigating romantic attachment as a moderator of the relation between an individual's jealousy or an individual's perception of his or her partner's jealousy and one's couple satisfaction. The sample comprised of 502 university students currently involved in a relationship of at least 12 months. An original and comprehensive model concurrently investigating emotional, cognitive, and behavioral facets of jealousy was used. The implementation of hierarchical models revealed that cognitive jealousy was negatively associated with couple satisfaction, whereas emotional jealousy demonstrated a positive association; behavioral jealousy did not add incremental value in one's couple satisfaction. Results were applicable to both one's own and one's perception of his or her partner's jealousy for each respective facet. Cognitive jealousy was demonstrated to explain the greatest variance in one's couple satisfaction. Findings also revealed romantic attachment as a moderator of the relation between certain facets of jealousy and couple satisfaction, with attachment anxiety and avoidance leading to a strengthened or weakened relation, respectively. As such, results suggest that the negative and positive consequences of jealousy on couple satisfaction may be exacerbated among those exhibiting higher attachment anxiety. The applied and clinical implications of all findings are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Objective: Individuals with bulimia nervosa have been shown to display heterogeneous profiles of comorbid psychiatric disturbance, possibly due to varying degrees of genetic and environmental vulnerability. Using information about comorbid psychiatric disturbances, we developed an empirically based classification of individuals with bulimia-spectrum disorders, and then explored whether or not the resulting phenotypes corresponded to variations in the serotonin transporter promoter polymorphism (5-HTTLPR) and exposure to childhood abuse., Method: Eighty-nine women aged 17 to 49 years with DSM-IV bulimia-spectrum disorders completed questionnaires assessing eating and general psychopathologic symptoms, participated in interviews assessing Axis I disorders and childhood abuse, and provided blood samples for genotyping. Data on lifetime Axis I disorders were analyzed using latent class analysis, and resulting classes were compared on eating and psychopathologic symptoms, 5-HTTLPR genotype, and childhood abuse. The study was conducted from June 2002 to October 2006., Results: The analysis yielded a model with 2 classes: a first class labeled low comorbidity (N = 59, 66%), characterized by a high likelihood of major depressive disorder, and another class labeled high comorbidity (N = 30, 34%), characterized by a high likelihood of major depressive disorder, anxiety disorder, and substance-use disorders. The high-comorbidity class displayed significantly higher dieting preoccupations and conduct problems, and showed a greater likelihood of carrying the 5-HTTLPR S allele and of childhood abuse than did the low-comorbidity class., Conclusions: The present results are consistent with previous findings identifying a subgroup of individuals with bulimia characterized by high psychiatric comorbidity and suggest that the 5-HTTLPR polymorphism and childhood trauma may both be pertinent to explaining the presence of greater psychiatric comorbidity in bulimia-spectrum disorders.