Differential associations of maternal and paternal attachment in late adolescence.

摘要

Although previous research has demonstrated that security in attachment with primary caretakers associates with positive outcomes in late-adolescence (Rice, 1990), as researchers have begun to examine the relative influences of attachment to both mothers and fathers on male and female offspring, the results become inconsistent and unclear (Arbona & Power, 2003; Kenny & Gallagher, 2002; Rice at al., 1997). Some have reported maternal attachment to display stronger associations with outcomes (Laible & Carlo, 2004), while others have reported attachment to fathers to display unique associations (Rice, Cunningham, & Young, 1997), while still others have reported similar or combined influences for both mothers and fathers (Arbona & Power, 2003). Additionally, some data reports differences based upon gender of offspring (Kenny & Donaldson, 1991), while others report similar influences for males and females (Kenny & Gallagher, 2002).; The main goal of the current study was to address these inconsistencies in the literature concerning the relative predictive power of attachment relationships. The current study extended beyond previous research by including control of potentially confounding variables not fully addressed in previous studies. One hundred and eight late-adolescents completed self-report measures assessing attachment to parents, demographic information, and outcome measures targeting the constructs of self-esteem, well-being, and social competence. Hierarchical regression analyses revealed that the relative predictive power of attachment to mothers and fathers varied not only as a function of the domain assessed, but within domains of outcomes as well. Attachment to fathers uniquely predicted aspects of participants' self-esteem and well-being, while attachment to both mothers and fathers significantly predicted participants' social competence. Findings from the current study revealed that the influences of attachment to mothers and fathers were similar for males and females and did not vary as a functioning of gender of participants or child-parent gender interactions.