Avoidant attachment and the experience of parenting

Guided by attachment theory, this research investigated connections between avoidant attachment styles and the experience of parenting after the birth of a couple's first child. One hundred and six couples completed a battery of measures approximately 6 weeks before and 6 months after the birth of their first child. As anticipated, parents with more avoidant attachment styles experienced greater stress after the birth of their child and perceived parenting as less satisfying and personally meaningful. Attachment theory maintains that adult attachment styles should affect relationships with adults and with one's children. The present findings provide some of the first evidence that self-reported adult romantic attachment styles, which have been the focus of attachment research by social and personality psychologists, are systematically associated with parent-child relationships. They also provide insight into the processes through which secure and insecure attachment styles might be transmitted from one generation to the next.     

"One Day I Will Make a Good Parent": On The Relationship Between Overparenting and Young Adults’ Early Parenting Representations

Early parenting representations are likely to affect future parenting, and it is therefore important to investigate their predictors. In this study, we focused on one dimension of early parenting representations, i.e., perceived ability to relate well to children (PARC) in young adults who are not yet parents, and examined whether this was associated with their own parents’ overparenting. In addition, we investigated whether this association was mediated by young adults’ attachment styles and perceived general interpersonal problems. Questionnaires were collected from 96 triads (mothers, fathers, young adults; 50% male) comprising intact families. Overparenting dimensions were not consistently associated with PARC. First, significant associations with PARC were observed only for maternal overparenting. Second, higher levels of maternal anticipatory problem solving were significantly associated with lower levels of PARC, whereas higher levels of maternal advice/affect management were significantly associated with higher levels of PARC. These associations were significantly mediated (partially) by levels of secure attachment style and (completely) by levels of dismissive attachment style. Dimensions of maternal overparenting and their interplay with young adult offspring’s attachment might have a part in the formation of young adults’ early parenting representations. Prevention initiatives could be set up to inform young adults’ parents about the drawbacks of overparenting, and young adults themselves about possible coping mechanisms.     

Adult Attachment Styles, the Desire to Have Children, and Working Models of Parenthood

ABSTRACT College students who had yet to marry and begin a family were asked about their desire to have children and their beliefs and expectations about themselves as parents (Study 1) and the characteristics of their prospective children (Study 2). Persons with more avoidant and anxious-ambivalent models of close adult relationships harbored more negative models of parent-hood and parent-child relationships. These findings indicate that working models of parenting and parent-child relationships form well before marriage and the birth of children and that these models are systematically associated with attachment styles in adult relationships. The findings also suggest ways in which insecure attachments between child and parent may be influenced by the caregiver's models of parenting and parent-child relationships.     

Patterns of Attachment in Frequently and Infrequently Reading Mother—Child Dyads

This study explored the relationship between the quality of the mother–child attachment and how often mothers read to their children. Eighteen children who were read to infrequently were matched to a group of children who were read to daily, for sex, age, and socioeconomic status. The children's mothers read them a booklet, mother and child were observed in a reunion episode, the children completed the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test (Dunn, 1965) and Frostig's (1966) test for spatial orientation, and the mothers were given the Adult Attachment Interview (George, Kaplan, & Main, 1984). The mothers in the frequently reading dyads did not need to discipline their child to focus on the reading task as often as the mothers in the infrequently reading dyads did. Mothers whose attachment to their child was less secure spent less time reading to their child and had more troublesome episodes during the reading session than mothers whose attachment to their child was more secure. The security of the mother-child attachment was related to the mothers' representation of their relationship with their parents, and mothers who had a secure relationship with their child read more frequently to their child than did mothers who had an insecure relationship with their child.     

Perceived Benefits and Costs of Romantic Relationships for Young People: Differences by Adult Attachment Style

Bowlby's attachment theory suggested that the attachment experiences of early childhood influence adult approaches to close relationships. As a result of these experiences, the child develops typical mental schemas or internal working models. The aim of this study was to analyze how young people with different attachment styles perceive the benefits and costs involved in spending as much time as possible with their partner, and to determine whether their beliefs reflect the internal working models associated with their attachment style. A sample of 1,539 university students responded to the Relationship Questionnaire (Bartholomew & Horowith, 1991), and to a questionnaire about behavioral beliefs (perceived benefits and costs). Results show that young people with different attachment styles hold different beliefs about the consequences derived from engaging in a specific behavior in romantic relationships. Secure and preoccupied individuals perceived more benefits than costs associated with the behavior, whereas dismissing and fearful individuals perceived more costs than benefits. Furthermore, secure and preoccupied individuals rated those behavioral consequences leading to enhanced intimacy or closeness more positively than avoidant individuals, whereas dismissing individuals rated more negatively those consequences that involved a loss of independence. These results confirm that a congruity exists between the beliefs associated with the behavior studied and the internal working models related to each adult attachment style.     

Relationship quality promotes the desire for closeness among distressed avoidantly attached individuals

Individuals who experience attachment avoidance tend to desire less closeness in their romantic relationships than others, especially when experiencing distress. However, emerging research suggests that avoidant individuals value social closeness and are more comfortable with it when they perceive that seeking closeness is welcomed. Thus, this research examined the relationship characteristics that might predict avoidant individuals seeking more closeness than they would otherwise. We investigated whether perceiving their relationship to be high quality would predict avoidant individuals desiring more closeness when distressed. We hypothesized that avoidant individuals who perceived their relationship to be high quality would desire greater closeness with their partners when distressed—counteracting their tendency to eschew relational closeness. A study of dating couples supported this hypothesis.     

Reciprocal Relations between Emerging Adults’ Representations of Relationships with Mothers,Fathers, and Romantic Partners

This study employed a fully cross-lagged, longitudinal model to examine reciprocal relations between representations of relationships with parents and romantic partners at ages 20 and 22. Representations were assessed with continuous measures of dismissing/avoidant and preoccupied relationship styles across the attachment and affiliation systems for parents, and across the attachment, affiliation, and caregiving systems for romantic partners. Earlier relationships with both mothers and fathers independently predicted changes in later views of romantic relationships, and earlier romantic relationships predicted changes in later views of relationships with both mothers and fathers. This evidence of a developmental system of interconnected representations across relationships has theoretical implications about the nature of working models, and practical implications alerting parents to the onset of dating as a potentially fertile context for changes in their relationships with children.     

The Association between Attachment Styles and Physical Intimate Partner Violence Perpetration and Victimization: A Meta‐Analysis

In this meta‐analysis, we examine attachment styles—something commonly incorporated into couples therapy—and their association with physical intimate partner violence (IPV) perpetration and victimization among men and women. This meta‐analysis incorporated 33 studies that looked at the association between four different attachment styles and IPV. This study examined the strength of the correlation among different attachment styles and IPV perpetration and victimization, examined gender differences in the strength of the association among attachment styles and IPV, and compared the strength of the association with IPV among different attachment styles. We found that anxious attachment, avoidant attachment, and disorganized attachment styles were all significantly associated with physical IPV perpetration and victimization. Secure attachment was significantly negatively related to IPV perpetration and victimization. There was a significantly stronger association between avoidant attachment and IPV victimization for women compared to men. Clinical implications related to the importance of fostering secure attachments when working with couples or individuals who have experienced IPV are addressed.     

Mother's attachment representations of their premature infant at 6 and 18 months after birth

The effects of premature birth on attachment have generally been examined from the infant's perspective. There is a lack of data concerning parental attachment representations toward a premature child. Because of the psychological stress engendered in parents confronted with a premature birth, we hypothesized that their attachment representations would be altered during the first months after the hospital discharge. Fifty families with a premature infant (25–33 gestation weeks) and a control group of 30 families with a full‐term infant participated to the study. Perinatal risks were evaluated during hospitalization. To assess mothers' representations of their infant, the Working Model of the Child Interview (WMCI, Zeanah & Benoit, 1995 & Benoit, Zeanah, Parker, Nicholson, & Coolbear, 1997) were administered when their children were 6 and 18 months old. The severity of the perinatal risks was found to have an impact on the mothers' attachment representations. At six months, only 20% of the mothers of a prematurely born infant (30% at 18 months) had secure attachment representations, vs. 53% for the control group (57% at 18 months). Furthermore, mothers of low‐risk premature infants more often had disengaged representations, whereas distorted representations were more frequent in the high‐risk group of premature children. These findings suggest that the parental response to a premature birth is linked to the severity of postnatal risks. The fact that secure attachment representations are affected in mothers of low‐risk infants just as much as they are in mothers of high‐risk infants points to the need to conduct further studies aimed at evaluating whether preventive intervention for both low‐risk and high‐risk premature will be helpful.     

Childhood attachment to parents and frequency of prayer during the college years

This study examines the association between childhood attachment with parents and the frequency of prayer among people raised in Mormon families. Three types of attachment with fathers and mothers – secure, anxious, and avoidant – were measured on a Likert scale. Undergraduate students at a state university in Utah completed questionnaires that included measurements of childhood attachment with parents and frequency of prayer. According to bivariate correlations, frequency of prayer was related to the nature of childhood attachment to parents; according to multiple regression analyses, the correlation between frequency of prayer and childhood attachment was largely, but not entirely, accounted for by other factors involving general frequency of religious activity; finally, these results differed somewhat between men and women. Men who had an avoidant relationship with their mother in childhood prayed less often when they were in college, while for women this association was not statistically significant.     

Adult attachment style and partner choice: Correlational and experimental findings

Three studies were conducted to assess the role of attachment style in partner selection using both correlational and experimental methods. Study 1 (n = 83 couples) assessed correlations between partner ratings on attachment-style dimensions and the relations between own and partner attachment style and relationship satisfaction. In Study 2 (n = 226) and Study 3 (n = 146), participants who varied in terms of attachment style rated the desirability of potential partners who also differed in terms of attachment style. Results of all three studies generally suggested that individuals were most attracted to partners with similar attachment styles. For example, anxious individuals tended to be dating anxious partners in Study 1, and they preferred anxious partners over secure and avoidant partners in Studies 2 and 3 (combined data). Thus, not all individuals preferred secure partners. Second, unlike previous studies that looked primarily at partner correlations, there was no evidence of anxious/avoidant matching. In fact, anxious individuals seemed particularly averse to avoidant partners. Finally, ratings of parental caregiving styles (especially ratings of mothers) were associated with adult attachment dimensions and partner choices. For example, individuals who rated their mothers as more cold and ambivalent were less attracted to secure partners. Clinical and research implications are discussed.     

Effects of attachment styles on the experience of equity in heterosexual couples relationships

Employing one correlational and two experimental studies, this paper examines the influence of attachment styles (secure, anxious, avoidant) on a person's experience of equity in intimate relationships. While one experimental study employed a priming technique to stimulate the different attachment styles, the other involved vignettes describing fictitious characters with typical attachment styles. As the specific hypotheses about the single equity components have been developed on the basis of the attachment theory, the equity ratio itself and the four equity components (own outcome, own input, partner's outcome, partner's input) are analyzed as dependent variables. While partners with a secure attachment style tend to describe their relationship as equitable (i.e., they give and take extensively), partners who feel anxious about their relationship generally see themselves as being in an inequitable, disadvantaged position (i.e., they receive little from their partner). The hypothesis that avoidant partners would feel advantaged as they were less committed was only supported by the correlational study. Against expectations, the results of both experiments indicate that avoidant partners generally see themselves (or see avoidant vignettes) as being treated equitably, but that there is less emotional exchange than is the case with secure partners. Avoidant partners give and take less than secure ones.     

Emotion Regulation and Attachment: Unpacking Two Constructs and Their Association

This study examined the association between the security of attachment and processes influencing the development of emotion regulation in young children. A sample of 73 4 1/2-year-olds and their mothers were observed in an emotion regulation probe involving mild frustration for children, and mothers and children were later independently interviewed about how the child had felt. Fewer than half the mothers agreed with children’s self-reports in the emotion they attributed to children (a lower rate than the concordance of observer ratings with children’s self-reports), and higher mother-child concordance was associated with secure attachment and mother’s beliefs about the importance of attending to and accepting their own emotions. Mother-child conversations about recent events evoking children’s negative emotion were also analyzed. Children were less likely to avoid conversing about negative feelings when they were in secure attachments and when mothers were more validating of the child’s perspective. Children’s greater understanding of negative emotions was also significantly associated with higher mother-child concordance and less child conversational avoidance. Taken together, these findings underscore the multiple influences of attachment on emotion regulation and the importance of children’s emotion understanding to these processes.     

Maternal depression, adult attachment, and children's emotional distress

INTRODUCTION: Our goal was to evaluate the impact of depressed mothers' marital intimacy and attachment security in romantic relationships on children's internalizing and externalizing symptoms. METHOD: Forty-six clinically depressed mothers rated attachment security, marital intimacy, and symptoms shown by their children aged 8 to 12. RESULTS: Maternal avoidance of closeness predicted increases in children's internalizing symptoms over a 6-month period. DISCUSSION: Avoidance of closeness in depressed mothers may be implicated in the development of internalizing symptoms in their children, possibly because individuals who are avoidant of closeness are poor caregivers.     

Gender and working models of attachment: Consequences for perceptions of self and romantic relationships

Several theorists have proposed that differential socialization experiences lead men and women to differ in the importance they assign to relationships and in how they interpret and respond to relationships. To explore this idea, this study examined whether men and women who reported similar attachment experiences responded differently to information about the same kind of relationship. Men and women with secure, preoccupied, or avoidant models of attachment imagined themselves in a relationship with a hypothetical partner who displayed secure, preoccupied, or avoidant behavior. As predicted, avoidant men and preoccupied women, whose attachment models exaggerated gender-role stereotypes, expressed the most negativity toward themselves and the relationship. Women also were more likely than men to apply specific information about the imagined relationship to general beliefs about their own relationships. In addition, men and women whose attachment models matched the partner's behavior responded more favorably to the relationship if they both expressed security, but less favorably if they both expressed avoidance. Findings for gender and partner matching closely paralleled those for couples in long-term relationships and support the idea that the meaning and consequences of attachment models must be considered within the context of gender roles.     

Why am I unsatisfied? Adult attachment style, gendered irrational relationship beliefs, and young adult romantic relationship satisfaction

Are individual differences in adult attachment styles (secure, anxious-ambivalent, or avoidant) associated with differential adherence to relationship-specific irrational beliefs? Does endorsement of irrational relationship beliefs relate to actual relationship dissatisfaction? These questions were explored with a sample of 118 male and female college students. Results indicated that insecure individuals (anxious-ambivalent or avoidant) endorsed significantly more relationship-specific irrational beliefs than those with a secure adult attachment style. Gendered patterns of endorsement of specific irrational beliefs cluster were also observed. Further, both an insecure adult attachment style and stronger adherence to relationship-specific irrational beliefs were related to diminished relationship satisfaction.     

Attachment as a Function of Parental and Partner Approach-Avoidance Tendencies

This two-part investigation develops a new scale of parental attachment that includes the previously under examined form of role reversal, or being a caregiver for one's parent, and explores the contention that romantic attachment is more dyadic than originally conceived, in that it is a function of an interaction between parental attachment style and specific partner romantic attachment style. It was expected that the most secure partners would have secure attachments with their parents and partners who report their own secure romantic attachment, that the most preoccupied partners would have been anxious-ambivalent in their attachment to their parents and paired with dismissively avoidant others, and that the most dismissively avoidant partners would have been role reversed by their parents and paired with preoccupied partners. Support for this expanded model was found, in that parental and partner attachments both influenced the final form of romantic attachment, with partner attachment appearing to have more influence than parental attachment. The relationship of romantic attachment style to the subsequent communication outcome of self-disclosure was also explored. Results supported expectations, with security relating positively to intentional and honest self-disclosure, preoccupation relating negatively with honesty, and dismissive avoidance relating to greater positivity and less honesty.     

不同依恋风格者情绪调节策略的认知神经特点

情绪调节是依恋研究的重要方面。本文依托Gross的情绪调节理论和相关认知神经证据,阐述了三种依恋风格者的情绪调节特点。焦虑型依恋调节负性情绪时存在注意分配的优势和表达抑制的不足;调节正性情绪时还采用了情景选择和情景修正策略。回避型依恋调节两种效价情绪均使用了表达抑制,调节正性情绪时还使用了认知重评。安全型依恋使用认知重评、注意分配和情景修正策略,效价差异不突出。探讨依恋与情绪调节的关系,有利于改善非安全型依恋的情绪调节能力。     

Children’s Coping Strategies to Inter-Parental Conflict: The Moderating Role of Attachment

In the literature on inter-parental conflict, little attention has been paid to the relationships among children’s attachment, coping strategies, and coping efficacy. The present study aims to explore whether and how children’s Internal Working Models of attachment moderate the associations among children’s perceived distress during the conflict, coping strategies, and coping efficacy. One hundred eighty-two school-aged children (87 secure, 46 anxious-ambivalent and 49 avoidant) and their parents completed measures of inter-parental conflict, attachment, coping strategies, and coping efficacy. The results indicate that children with different IWMs varied in the relations between coping strategies and coping efficacy. More precisely, the data show that secure children, when distressed, use the all of the coping strategies investigated, but the only ones that mediate the associations between their distress reactions and perceived coping efficacy were the positive cognitive restructuring strategies and the seeking support for feelings strategies. Avoidant children, when distressed, use higher levels of distraction and avoidance strategies and avoidance strategies mediated the effects of the children’s distress reactions on their coping inefficacy. Finally, anxious-ambivalent children, when distressed, activate all the coping strategies, with the exception of distraction and support for feelings. However, none of the strategies are correlated to their perceived coping efficacy.     

Japanese Children's Reactions to Family Photographs: Associations with Mothers' Attachment Status

This study examined differences in children's responses to their family photographs within a sample of Japanese 6‐year‐olds (N = 44), exploring associations with their mothers' attachment status. The differences in children's photo reactions were captured by a 5‐point continuous scale to rate how engaged children were and how positively they responded to the photographs taken earlier with their mothers. Mothers' attachment security was assessed by the Adult Attachment Interview. The findings revealed that children of mothers with secure attachment status were significantly more engaged/positive in their photo reactions than were children of mothers with insecure attachment status. Implications of the findings and future research directions are discussed. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.