Attachments to Mother, Father, and Romantic Partner as Predictors of Life Satisfaction

Two correlational survey studies were conducted among adult samples (Ns = 205; 697) to test the effects on general life satisfaction of attachment to three close others: mother, father, and romantic partner. Results showed that attachment to mother and father also matter in adulthood, in that they are associated with adult life satisfaction. Secure attachments to mother and father were positively associated with life satisfaction, and anxious and avoidant attachments to mother and father were negatively associated with life satisfaction. Moreover, attachment to the romantic partner was also related to life satisfaction, so that secure attachment was positively related to life satisfaction, and anxious and avoidant attachments were negatively related to the outcome variable. Importantly, attachment to mother and father were still significant predictors of life satisfaction when effects of attachment to the current romantic partner were controlled for. The effects of parental attachments on life satisfaction were not mediated by attachment to the romantic partner. Theoretical and applied implications of the findings are discussed.

Bindung von Kindern in familienrechtlichen Fragestellungen bei Gericht: Erkenntnisse und Missverständnisse

Psychological judicial expert reports for family law cases can include errors in the assessment of children’s attachments, their origins, their consequences, and the subsequent recommendation for the court. The article specifies potential sources of such errors and reviews several topics that are relevant for the evaluation and use of attachment assessments in psychological family law expert reports. These topics include attachment to mother and father, attachment hierarchy, the role of quantity and quality of contact to caregivers for attachment development and the use of results from attachment research on developmental consequences of attachment security and insecurity for psychological family law expert reports.

The Activation Relationship to Father and the Attachment Relationship to Mother in Children with Externalizing Behaviors and Receiving Psychiatric Care

The activation relationship refers to the emotional bond a child develops with a parent that helps ensure the regulation of risk-taking during child exploration of the surrounding environment. As a complement to Bowlby’s attachment theory, activation relationship theory provides a greater understanding of the impact of fathering on child development, focusing primarily on parental stimulation of risk-taking and control during child exploration. The overarching objective of this article is to better understand the association between children’s relationship quality with both parents, via the activation to father and the attachment to mother relationships, and child externalizing behaviors in a clinical sample. Fifty two-parent families (40 boys and 10 girls) were recruited at random from a population of children receiving treatment at the perinatal and early childhood psychiatry clinic. Results with 44 children (with complete cases) showed that overactivated preschoolers displayed more externalizing behaviors than did children with either an activated or an under-activated relationship with their father. Results also showed that children with a disorganized-controlling caregiving attachment to their mother marginally presented with higher levels of externalizing behavior.

The Impact of Adolescents’ Attachment to Peers and Parents on Aggressive and Prosocial Behavior: A Short-Term Longitudinal Study

This short-longitudinal study analyzed the cross-sectional and longitudinal pathways linking adolescent’s quality of attachment to parents and peers and their practice of aggressive and prosocial behavior; it also explored the moderation effect of gender on those pathways. A total of 375 secondary school students (203 girls and 172 boys), aged between 15 and 19 years old, completed the Inventory of Parent and Peer Attachment and the Peer Experience Questionnaire - Revised twice, within a four-month gap. Using a path analyses approach, results showed that aggression and prosocial behavior were the strongest predictors of themselves overtime. Attachment to mother had a cross-sectional effect on aggression and on prosocial behavior via attachment to peers, and attachment to peers predicted prosocial behavior; overall, the higher the quality of attachment, the lowest the practice of aggression and the highest the practice of prosocial behavior. These effects held stable for boys and girls, though gender-based differences were found in mean levels of attachment to peers and social behaviors. Even if other variables may be in place when understanding adolescents’ social behaviors, attachment to mother and peers also seem to play a relevant role in trying to achieve safer and more positive school climates. Suggestions on how to accomplish this are shortly discussed.

Childhood Sexual Abuse and Coping as Young Adults: The Roles of Attachment and Mattering

This study examined whether a history of childhood sexual abuse (CSA), attachment to mother, father, and friends, and mattering were related to the coping behaviors of 171 male and 85 female, ethnically diverse, low-income, young adults. The 74 survivors of CSA reported lower attachment to father and less mattering to parents than did the 97 who reported no abuse. Compared to male survivors, female survivors reported greater use of problem-focused coping and also perceived their abuse experience, particularly the use of force, as having a more negative impact on them. Stronger attachment to mother and to friends predicted more positive problem-focused coping. Mattering to friends moderated the relation between CSA history and problem-focused coping, with the CSA survivors who reported the highest mattering to friends also using the most problem-focused coping strategies. The role of attachment and mattering in problem-focused coping among young adults, especially those with a CSA history, is discussed.

THE CORRELATION OF EDUCATION STYLE, ATTACHMENT TO MOTHER AND CYBER RELATIONAL ADDICTION IN ADOLESCENCE

The education style, attachment to mother and their relationship with the dependence on social networks in adolescence are discussed in the article. It was revealed that the level of dependence on social networks is higher in adolescents with an unreliable type of attachment, in the upbringing of which the parenting errors predominate: hyperprotection and instability, as well as such parenting strategies as autonomy, inconsistency, directiveness and hostility.

Chinese adolescents’ psychosocial adjustment: The contribution of mothers’ attachment style and adolescents’ attachment to mother

Drawing on attachment theory, this study examined the associations among mothers’ self-report attachment styles (i.e., anxiety and avoidance), adolescents’ attachment to mother, and adolescents’ psychosocial adjustment (i.e., psychological difficulties, prosocial behavior, and self-control) in 425 Chinese mother–adolescent dyads. The results of path analysis based on the total sample showed that adolescents’ attachment to mother mediated the association between mothers’ avoidant, but not anxious, attachment style and adolescents’ psychosocial adjustment. Moreover, the results based on multigroup comparison suggested that while adolescents’ attachment to mother significantly mediated the “avoidant attachment–psychosocial adjustment” link for both early and middle adolescents, it significantly mediated the “anxious attachment–psychosocial adjustment” link only for middle adolescents. In addition, the association between mothers’ anxious attachment and adolescents’ attachment to mother was larger for middle than for early adolescents, while the association between adolescents’ attachment to mother and self-control was larger for early than for middle adolescents. These findings implicate the importance of mothers’ and adolescents’ secure attachment to positive youth development.

Preschoolers Attachment to the Mother and its Impact on Mental Health

The research shows influence of attachment to mother on psychological health of pre-school children. 163 preschoolers aged 5 to 7 years examined. The evaluation of different areas of attachment of child to mother was held using "Mother-child attachment style measure questionnaire" (E.V. Pupyreva, 2007), the psychological health of children was measured by "Strength and Difficulties Questionnaire"(E.R. Slobodskaya et al., 2005). It has been found that by the end of pre-school age the perception of mother in the capacity of support source is becoming noticeable for boys. Shown that in children who demonstrate insecure attachment, registered emotional symptoms and internal problems, meanwhile children with secure attachment type are following the prosociality in behavior. Concluded that the act of reliable attachment (acceptance of a child by mother, emotional sensibility of mother) is the important predictor of mental health. Insufficient support of children by mother and small need of mother presence increase possibility of the emotional disturbance and the behavioral problems.