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

Abstract

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.