Poster #144 - Links Between Adolescent Secure Base Representations and Expectations of Future Romantic Relationships

• In Event: 3-106 - Poster Session 11
  In Poster Session: PS 11 Section - Parenting & Parent-Child Relationships

Integrative Statement

BACKGROUND: Attachment theory states that early experiences with caregivers guide expectations about future relationships. Experiences with a consistently reliable and sensitive caregiver shape a mental representation of that person as someone who can be depended on as a secure base in times of need (Bretherton & Munholland, 2008). Such mental representations guide both the processing of attachment-related information and predictions about how caregivers will behave. Much research has examined how mental representations of caregivers influence expectations about peer relationships (Dykas, & Cassidy, 2011), but considerably less has examined how these influence expectations about emerging romantic relationships in adolescence or how those influences differ by sex. Adolescent sex is an important factor to consider when examining these links, as it is possible that, for heterosexual adolescents, representations of mothers only generalize to boys’ future female romantic partners, and representations of fathers only generalize to girls’ future male partners. The purpose of this study was to test the hypothesis that perceptions of mothers and fathers as a secure base will both be positively associated with expectations that future romantic partners will be a secure base. We also examined interaction with gender.
METHOD: Participants were 149 eleventh-grade students part of a larger study about attachment and social relations (Dykas, Ziv, & Cassidy, 2008). During a lab visit, adolescents rated the extent to which they viewed each parent as a secure base (Parent as a Secure Base Scale—Mother and Father versions; Cassidy, & Woodhouse, 1998). They also completed a measure of the extent to which they view their current dating partners or imagined dating partners in the future as a secure base (Dating Partner as a Secure Base Scale; Cassidy & Woodhouse, 1998). The present analyses focus on those adolescents who reported on a future dating partner (N = 103).
RESULTS: Multiple regression analyses conducted in R v3.4.1 revealed a main effect of adolescent perceptions of mother as a secure base on expectations that future romantic partners would serve as a secure base (β =.66, R2 = .25, p =.028; see Figure 1). There was no significant interaction with child sex. Similarly, there was a main effect of adolescent perceptions of father as a secure base on expectations that future romantic partners would serve as a secure base (β =1.01, R2 = .20, p <.001). There was also a significant interaction with child sex, (β = -.47, p =.021); simple slopes analysis revealed that this effect was significant for females only (β =.56, p <.001; see Figure 2).
DISCUSSION: The current study suggests that adolescent perceptions of parents as secure bases are associated with their secure base expectations about future romantic partners, but perceptions of fathers are associated with these expectations only in girls. Discussion will focus on the generalization and consistency of mental representations and social information processing across close relationships, and possible explanations for sex differences.

Authors

• Megan H Fitter, University of Maryland, College Park
  Presenting Author

• Katherine B Ehrlich, University of Georgia
  Non-Presenting Author

• Jessica A Stern, University of Maryland, College Park
  Non-Presenting Author

• Jacquelyn Gross, University of Maryland, College Park
  Non-Presenting Author

• Jude Cassidy, Department of Psychology, University of Maryland-College Park
  Non-Presenting Author