Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2019 Sep;5(3):220-234.
doi: 10.1037/mot0000112. Epub 2018 Sep 13.

Adult Attachment, Implicit Motives, and Mothers' and Fathers' Parenting Behaviors

Paige Safyer  1 , Brenda L Volling  1 , Oliver C Schultheiss  2 , Richard M Tolman  1
Affiliations

Adult Attachment, Implicit Motives, and Mothers' and Fathers' Parenting Behaviors

Paige Safyer et al. Motiv Sci. 2019 Sep.

Abstract

The current study investigated connections between implicit motives of power and affiliation, adult attachment styles, and parenting behaviors using self-report and observational data from 191 mothers, fathers, and their 12-month-old infants. An interaction between avoidant attachment and nAffiliation indicated that implicit affiliation motives predicted positive maternal behaviors, but only for highly avoidant mothers. For fathers, lower attachment anxiety and nPower were associated with positive parenting behaviors, whereas high levels of attachment anxiety and nPower were associated with negative parenting behaviors. Attachment styles of avoidance and anxiety, as well as implicit motives of power and affiliation, were unique predictors of parenting behaviors. Overall, the findings suggest that parenting behaviors in the first year of infancy are predicted by parents' working models of attachment and implicit motives of affiliation and power.

Keywords: adult attachment; fathers; implicit motives; mothers; parenting behaviors.

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.
Interaction Between nAffiliation and Attachment Avoidance Predicting Mothers’ Positive Parenting Behaviors
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Ainsworth MDS (1973). The development of infant-mother attachment. In Caldwell BM & Ricciuti HN (Eds.), Review of Child Development Research: Vol. 3. Child Development and Social Policy (pp. 1–94). Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
    1. Bornstein MH, & Lansford JE (2010). Parenting. The Handbook of Cross-Cultural Developmental Science New York: Taylor & Francis, 259–77.
    1. Bowlby J (1969). Attachment and loss: Vol. 1. Attachment London: Hogarth Press.
    1. Brennan KA, Clark CL, & Shaver PR (1998). Self-report measurement of adult attachment: An integrative overview. Attachment Theory and Close Relationships, 46–76.
    1. Bugental DB, & Johnston C (2000). Parental and child cognitions in the context of the family. Annual Review of Psychology, 51, 315–344. - PubMed

LinkOut - more resources