1-138 - Adult Attachment Style: Implications for Parenting Behavior and Child Outcomes

Session Type: Paper Symposium

Integrative Statement

Meta-analytic data have shown there is a link between parental attachment, as assessed using the Adult Attachment Interview (George, Kaplan, & Main, 1984), and parenting behavior (van IJzendoorn, 1995). Jones, Cassidy, and Shaver (2015), noted, however, that much less is known about links between self-reported adult attachment style and parenting. This method, which emerged from the social psychology research literature, yields two dimensions of attachment: avoidance (discomfort with closeness or dependence on others) and attachment anxiety (desire for closeness and fear of rejection; Mikulincer & Shaver, 2007). This symposium examines how dimensions of adult attachment style are linked to parenting behavior and child development. We present data from three separate labs, with integrative comments by a senior discussant from a fourth lab.

Paper 1 presents evidence from four separate samples (preschool through middle school), showing that adult attachment style predicts parents’ empathy for their children in both mothers and fathers.

Paper 2 describes how parental attachment styles (attachment anxiety and avoidance) interact with elaborative reminiscing to predict preschool children’s memory deficits for emotional events.

Paper 3 takes a different approach, mathematically rotating the dimensions of attachment anxiety and avoidance to create two attachment dimensions: secure (low anxiety, low avoidance) vs. fearful (high anxiety, high avoidance) and preoccupied (high anxiety, low avoidance) vs. dismissing (low anxiety, high avoidance), to investigate links between maternal attachment style and maternal sensitivity, as well as the moderating role of maternal psychological symptoms.

Findings will be discussed in terms of implications for developmental theory and intervention.

Sub Unit

• Parenting & Parent-Child Relationships

Chair

• Susan S. Woodhouse, Lehigh University

Discussant

• Gail S. Goodman, University of California, Davis

Individual Presentations

• Adult Attachment Style Predicts Parents’ Empathy for their Children: Evidence from Preschool through Middle Childhood - Presenting Author: Jessica A Stern, University of Maryland, College Park; Non-Presenting Author: Jacquelyn Gross, University of Maryland, College Park; Non-Presenting Author: Bonnie Brett, University of Maryland; Non-Presenting Author: Tracy Riggins, University of Maryland; Non-Presenting Author: Megan H Fitter, University of Maryland, College Park; Non-Presenting Author: Emilia Milheim, University of Maryland, College Park; Non-Presenting Author: Jude Cassidy, Department of Psychology, University of Maryland-College Park

• Parental Attachment and Children’s Memory for Emotional Life Events: The Moderating Role of Elaborative Reminiscing - Presenting Author: Yoojin Chae, Texas Tech University; Non-Presenting Author: Ivette Noriega, Texas Tech University; Non-Presenting Author: Torey Griggs, Texas Tech University; Non-Presenting Author: Lauren Kelly, Southern New Hampshire University

• Maternal Attachment Styles, Psychological Distress and Parenting in a Distress Context - Presenting Author: Meenal Jog, Lehigh University; Non-Presenting Author: Susan S. Woodhouse, Lehigh University