Adult Romantic Attachment and Parental Reflective Functioning in Parents of Pre-School Children: An Association Study With a Sex-Sensitive Approach.

Parental Insecure Attachment Styles and Clinical Psychological Symptoms in Adolescent Children: The Mediating Role of Coparenting

Revisiting Maternal and Paternal Parenting Styles: Differentiating Latent Profiles and Associations With Psychosocial Outcomes of Chinese Adolescents in a National Sample of Parent-Child Dyads.

INTRODUCTION Parent-child interactions constitute a critical developmental context for the psychosocial adjustment of adolescents. This study aimed to differentiate parenting styles and examine their domain-specific effects on later adolescent outcomes, using a culturally sensitive, person-centered approach. METHODS This study employed latent profile analysis (LPA) on a national sample of 8333 Chinese parent-adolescent dyads (4564 mother-child and 3769 father-child dyads) from the China Education Panel Survey (CEPS). At baseline, adolescents were aged 12.93 years on average (SD = 0.82), and 51.5% of them were boys. Analyses were conducted separately for the full sample of parents, mothers, and fathers to identify distinct parenting profiles and their subsequent influence on adolescent academic difficulty, deviant peer affiliation, and depression. RESULTS A robust four-profile structure namely Authoritative, Managerial, Warm Harbor, and Disengaged was identified for the full and maternal samples. Crucially, a unique five-profile structure emerged for fathers, featuring an additional Emotionally Detached profile characterized by average discipline but extremely low warmth. Further analyses revealed that the Authoritative and Warm Harbor profiles were associated with more favorable outcomes across all domains, particularly in mother-child dyads. For father-child dyads, the Emotionally Detached profile was uniquely associated with higher academic difficulty, deviant peer affiliation, and depression. CONCLUSIONS These findings underscore the necessity of using gender-differentiated, person-centered approaches to understand culturally configured parenting and its consequences. Moving beyond uniform theoretical models, these results inform more targeted research and family support practices.

Intergenerational transmission of attachment patterns in families of adolescents with non-suicidal self-injury: the mediating role of child insecure attachment.

OBJECTIVE The objective of this study was to evaluate the direct and indirect associations between parental insecure attachment and non-suicidal self-injury (NSSI) in adolescents, with particular emphasis on the mediating role of insecure attachment in the child and the differential contributions of paternal and maternal attachment patterns. METHODS A cross-sectional design was employed involving 74 adolescents aged 10-19 years and their parents. Participants were categorized into three groups: adolescents with NSSI (NSSI group), adolescents diagnosed with mood disorders without NSSI (clinical control group), and healthy controls. Attachment patterns were assessed using the Experiences in Close Relationships Inventory. Mediation effects were examined using structural equation modeling. RESULTS Insecure attachment in the child was a significant predictor of NSSI in adolescents (β = 0.823, p = 0.003). Neither paternal nor maternal insecure attachment demonstrated a direct association with NSSI. However, insecure attachment in fathers was significantly associated with insecure attachment in the child (β = 0.852, p = 0.043). A statistically significant indirect effect was observed between paternal insecure attachment and adolescent NSSI through insecure attachment in the child (β = 0.701, p = 0.047). The corresponding mediation pathway involving maternal insecure attachment was not statistically significant. CONCLUSIONS Insecure attachment in the child served as a key mediating factor in the association between paternal insecure attachment and NSSI. These findings suggest that paternal attachment patterns may have a distinct influence on the development of attachment insecurity in adolescents. Preventive and therapeutic interventions may benefit from addressing attachment security in both parents and children, with particular consideration given to paternal attachment within intergenerational transmission processes. CLINICAL TRIAL NUMBER Not applicable.

Adult Attachment Predicts Parental Empathy: Evidence Across Four Samples of Parents of Children From Preschool Through Middle Childhood

Extensive research points to the importance of adult attachment in predicting empathy, but little research has examined the role of attachment in shaping adults’ empathy specifically for their children. This paper examines how adult attachment avoidance (discomfort with emotional closeness) and attachment anxiety (worry about abandonment by relationship partners) contribute to empathy within parent–child relationships. Across four studies, we test these links using a multi-dimensional, multi-sample approach, drawing on data from parents of children spanning preschool (Studies 1 and 2), school-age (Study 3), and middle childhood (Study 4), with a total of 349 parents of children ages 3–10 years. In each study, parents completed the Experiences in Close Relationships scale and the Interpersonal Reactivity Index—Parent version, adapted to assess parents’ empathy for their child (i.e., parental empathic concern, perspective-taking, and personal distress), alongside a range of other empathy measures. Controlling for child sex and maternal education, analyses consistently showed that attachment avoidance was associated with parents’ lower empathic concern and, for parents of preschool-aged children, lower perspective-taking; in contrast, results for attachment anxiety were mixed and often null. In addition, longitudinal analyses (Study 1) revealed that attachment avoidance at baseline predicted relative decreases in parental perspective-taking over a 4-month period. Both attachment anxiety and avoidance showed nonsignificant associations with parents’ personal distress after accounting for covariates. Findings have implications for attachment theory, relationship science, and parenting interventions.

Are differences in early aggressive behavior mediated by attachment processes? The case of adolescent mother-infant dyads.

This study examines the possibility that the association between young motherhood and child aggressive behavior is mediated by maternal sensitivity and attachment security. Adolescent (n = 83) and adult (n = 44) mother-infant dyads were met at home when infants were 6-, 10-, 15- and 18-months-old. Sensitivity (6 and 10 months) and attachment security (15 and 18 months) were assessed based on two sets of 120-minute home observations. Child aggressiveness was reported by mothers at 18 months. Young motherhood was linked to lower levels of sensitivity and attachment security, and greater levels of aggressive behaviors. Sequential mediation analysis revealed mediation by attachment processes, after controlling for infant irritability (6- and 10-months). Discussion focuses on the way results support important postulates of attachment theory and argue in favor of attachment-based intervention and other strategies that addresses other challenges faced by young mothers.

Formative Parental Competencies and Parenting Stress as Predictors of Children’s Self-Esteem

Background. Nurturing and responsive parenting, along with parental competencies that foster child development, are the foundation for healthy emotional and psychological growth, as they provide children and adolescents with a secure environment in which they feel valued, understood, and capable of coping with everyday challenges. From this perspective, the quality of family interactions plays a central role in the development of children’s self-esteem. Objective. To analyze the relationship among formative parental competencies, parental stress, and children’s self-esteem. Design. The sample of 332 participants comprised 166 children aged 8 to 12 years and their caregivers. The E2P v.2 scale, the PSI-SF, and the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale were administered, after obtaining consent from the parents and/or caregivers and assent from the children. Results. At a correlational level, formative parental competencies were negatively associated with parental stress, and positively associated with children’s self-esteem, while parental stress was negatively associated with that self-esteem. When examining the relationships using structural equation modeling, formative parental competencies were associated with less stress and higher self-esteem in children, without showing a direct effect of stress on the children’s self-esteem. Conclusion. These findings suggest that the quality of parenting practices is associated with lower levels of parental stress and higher levels of children’s self-esteem, highlighting its potential role as a protective factor. This pattern of associations may inform the design of interventions aimed at strengthening parental competencies aligned with positive parenting, without implying causal effects.