Causas de deserción en Ambientes Virtuales de Aprendizaje

Although past research has indicated a gender difference in the level of separation from parents with females tending to report more dependence on their parents and requiring more emotional support (Kenny, 1987; Guezaine et al, 2000; Lucas, 1997) this was not directly reflected in the current research results. No

significant difference was found on the measure of separation-individuation between males and females.

Differences between the sample for the current study and samples from past research may explain the inconsistent findings. Most of the past studies in this area

have used slightly younger American college students (Kenny, 1987; Lucas, 1997), Belgian college students (Guezaine et al., 2000) and German adolescents (Seiffge- Krenke, 1999). Gender differences in separation-individuation may be more evident with younger student participants, particularly if they have had to leave home to attend college. More than half (52.2 %) of the participants in the current study were working full-time after completing their schooling or higher education and so were not undertaking such a transition. Furthermore, different measures were used in the past studies compared to the current study, which makes accurate comparisons difficult.

However, there was a gender difference in scores on the outcome measure, fear of intimacy. The mean fear of intimacy score for males was significantly higher than the mean fear of intimacy score for females, which led to an investigation of the model separately for both sexes. It is important to note that there was a much smaller sample of males in the current study (n = 43 vs n = 91 for females), which may have contributed to the difference. This gender difference in the current study is in contrast to the findings of Sherman and Thelen (1996) who found that females reported higher fear of intimacy scores for dating relationships and males reported higher fear of intimacy scores for friendships. However, this difference may be accounted for by the sample for the earlier study being substantially younger (mean age 15.7 years) than that for the current sample. The results from the current study however seem to be consistent with the findings of Thelen et al. (2000) who found that males had a higher fear of intimacy than females, although their sample was younger college students (mean age = 19.77 years and 19.41 year for males and females respectively). A.L Thompson (2007) also found that male childhood cancer survivors had higher fear of

intimacy, but comparisons are difficult due to the inherent difference in the populations.

The lower fear of intimacy score for the female participants may be due to the influence of culture in Western Society. Often females are brought up and socialized to take on the role of carer or nurturer (roles that involve intimacy) to other

individuals such as friends and family members, with past research highlighting females desired and were comfortable with tenderness with women rating love, affection and the expression of warm feelings as important (Hook et al., 2003; Ridley, 1993). It seems logical that this role may extend in part to their respective romantic relationships. A lower fear of intimacy when compared to males may be the result of this cultural norm. In addition, past research (Montgomery, 2005) has identified gender differences in the development of psychosocial functioning (e.g., identity and intimacy) across adolescence, middle adolescence and emerging adulthood suggesting a different rate of development between males and females. In particular females had higher intimacy than males in emerging adulthood (as measured by the Erikson Psycho-Social Index) (Montgomery, 2005), which may assist in explaining why in the current study, females had a lower fear of intimacy. Erikson’s (1968) proposed theory of lifespan development includes a sixth stage named Intimacy vs Isolation (focusing on intimate relationships with others) which involves the mature

progression through the previous developmental stages. If males perhaps had not progressed through these earlier stages this may assist in explaining their higher fear of intimacy in romantic relationships. Future research could focus on differences within couples to explore this possibility.

Also, no information was obtained on birth order in the family which may have played a part in fear of intimacy. The number of siblings, the number of boys

and girls in the family, and age intervals between siblings varies as each new child is born into a family, with the family being an individual’s first experience of a social environment (F. Milne & Judge, 2009). F. Milne and Judge (2009) suggest that a later born sibling enters into an environment where parental resources are split between two or more children. Arguably this child may encounter an environment that is more stressful and which may impact on attachment processes in ways that are different from a child who is the first born (F. Milne & Judge, 2009). In addition, the personality of an individual has been found to vary according to birth order (Sulloway, 1995) with past research reporting that first born children were more neurotic than the middle child in a family (Sulloway, 1996; F. Milne & Judge, 2009). Relating to romantic relationships, it has been found that within relationships those individuals that shared a birth order (oldest, middle, youngest) were more likely to be in a long-term relationship (romantic or friendship) (Hartshorne, Salem-Hartshorne & Hortshorne, 2009). Obtaining information on the birth order of both partners would be helpful in future research to ascertain whether having the same or different birth order has an impact on their fear of intimacy.

Even though separation-individuation was not a distinguishing factor between males and females, it still served to explain a significant amount of the variance for both the separate male and female models indicating that it does indeed have some relationship with fear of intimacy. Males may be more sensitive to the effects of separation-individuation as even though past research has found that they were more likely to deal with problems on their own (Kenny, 1987) and required less emotional support and closeness from parents (Guezaine et al, 2000; Lucas, 1997), this does not necessarily mean they have negotiated the separation-process to a greater extent. Instead such findings could be a reflection of males conforming to society’s norms.

As highlighted in earlier research (Guezaine et al., 2000), the role of autonomy is often placed with males and they may be eager to live up to these expectations which may mask any obvious effects of a lack of separation-individuation from their parents. Differences in separating from the same sex versus the opposite sex parent was also found in Guezaine et al.’s (2000) research whereby for males, if they felt emotionally close to their fathers, negative feelings were experienced when separating from their mothers and vice versa. Although no comparisons can be made to the current study as separation from mothers and fathers was not examined separately, future research may want to further investigate differences in separating from mothers and fathers.

Perceived maternal overprotection was significant in the final model only for females, indicating that as perceived maternal overprotection increased, fear of intimacy was lower. It could be expected that an experience of higher perceived maternal overprotection (a high level of protection and control) may have been related to a higher fear of intimacy. However the direction of the association could be due to differences in the relationship between mothers and daughters and mothers and sons. Within western culture it is common for mothers and daughter to have a close relationship, which although it could have been perceived as protective and

controlling by the individual, may have inadvertently become a model for intimacy that is then extended to romantic relationships.