Characteristics of Interpersonal Relationships Between Girls Suffering From Love Addiction and Their Fathers

Introduction. The paper (a) examines the characteristics of interpersonal relationships between 16–19-year-old girls suffering from love addiction and their fathers and (b) provides an overview of previous studies on the issue. In the latter, the father's role is recognized to be among its major contributing factors. Empirical data were collected during psychological counseling of young female love addicts. The present study focuses on the nature of interpersonal relationships between daughters suffering from love addiction and their fathers and discusses preventive measures against such dependency in new generations of Russian females. Methods. These were (a) the Love Addiction Test by A. Yu. Egorova; (b) the Interpersonal Dependency Inventory by R. Hirschfeld; (c) the Teenagers About Parents technique by L. I. Wasserman, I. A. Gor'kova, and E. E. Romitsyna; (d) the Family Sociograms by E. G. Eidemiller and O. V. Cheremisin; (e) the technique for assessing father-daughter relationships; (f) the My Relations with Men in the Eyes of Others self-assessment technique. Statistical procedures for data processing included Spearman's correlation and Mann–Whitney U test. Results. The study presents the results of comparative analysis of father-daughter relationships in two study groups – young female love addicts and those having no signs of pathological love. The findings suggest that with age interpersonal dependency decreases in girls not suffering from love addiction and increases in young female love addicts. Discussion The study seeks to describe, understand, and interpret interpersonal relationships between young female love addicts and their fathers. These are often characterized by fathers' directivity, inconsistency, and hostility, but at the same time by daughters' positive interest in their fathers. A physically absent,indifferent or ina­dequate in his care father (i.e., directive, inconsistent, and hostile) is a factor inducing formation of a daughter's love addiction. The authors suggest shifting emphasis from the correction of love addiction to its socio­psychological prevention in new generations of Russian females.