About this paper symposium

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Panel information
Panel 14. Parenting & Parent-Child Relationships

Paper #1
Attachment Orientation and Parental Adjustment during the Transition to Parenthood: An Actor-Partner Independence Model (APIM)
Author information	Role
Yufei Gu, New York University Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates	Presenting author
Rui Yang, New York University Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates	Non-presenting author
Theodore E. A. Waters, New York University Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates	Non-presenting author
Abstract
Previous studies have underscored the critical role of attachment styles in navigating the transition to parenthood (Kuersten-Hogan, 2017; McHale & Dickstein, 2019). Findings from previous research demonstrated the impact of prenatal attachment orientations on postpartum mental health. Specifically, mothers high in attachment anxiety may experience an increase in stress and depressive symptoms, and declines in marital satisfaction during the transition to parenthood, due to the decrease in the level of perceived support from their partners (e.g. Rholes et al., 2001; Simpson et al., 2003). However, the reciprocal nature of psychological experiences among couples transitioning to parenthood has generally been underrepresented in the literature, failing to account for how partners mutually influence each other's psychological adaptation during this significant life transition. The present study examines the dyadic influence of attachment orientations during pregnancy in shaping postpartum depression and perceived stress during the transition to parenthood in a Chinese sample. Data was drawn from an ongoing longitudinal study on the transition to parenthood in the Jiang-Zhe-Hu area, the most developed region in China. The sample consisted of 270 first-time parents (117 fathers, 153 mothers; 117 complete couples). Two waves of data were utilized: last trimester of pregnancy (T1), and 6 months postpartum (T2). Attachment orientation was measured using the Chinese version of Experience in Close Relationships at T1 (ECR; Brennan et al., 1998; Li-Tonggui, 2006). Postpartum Depression and Perceived Stress were measured with the Chinese version of the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale (EPDS; Cox et al., 1987; Wang et al., 2009), and Perceived Stress Scale (PSS; Cohen et al., 1983) at T1 and T2. The Actor-Partner Interdependence Model (APIM; Cook & Kenny, 2005) was utilized to examine the interdependence within the couples, with FIML to address missing data. Results in Table 1 revealed that fathers’ attachment avoidance and anxiety at T1 significantly positively predicted their own postpartum depression at T2, while no effect was observed for mothers. No partner effects were observed. Pre-existing depression at T1 was a significant predictor of postpartum depression for both mothers and fathers. Additionally, education level significantly predicted postpartum depression, but in opposite directions for mothers and fathers. Regarding perceived stress (see Table 2), fathers’ attachment avoidance significantly positively predicted their own and their partners’ perceived stress at T2. Conversely, mothers' attachment avoidance significantly positively predicted their own perceived stress, but not their partners'. Both fathers’ and mothers’ attachment anxiety at T1 significantly positively predicted their own perceived stress at T2, with mothers’ attachment anxiety at T1 also significantly positively predicting their partners’ perceived stress, demonstrating dyadic effects. Perceived Stress at T1 was a consistent predictor of perceived stress at T2 for both mothers and fathers, while education level was non-significant for either parent. These findings highlight the importance of considering both partners' attachment styles and pre-existing mental health conditions in predicting postnatal mental health outcomes, acknowledging the interconnected nature of their experiences.

Paper #2
The Role of Partner Presence on Parents’ Responding to Infant Distress: Moderation by Parental Attachment
Author information	Role
Cory R. Platts, University of Missouri, United States	Presenting author
Allie M. Spiekerman, University of Missouri, United States	Non-presenting author
Ashley M. Groh, University of Missouri, United States	Non-presenting author
Katherine C. Haydon, Mount Holyoke College, United States	Non-presenting author
Abstract
Introduction. Research on the significance of adult attachment representations for responding to infant crying—a potent infant attachment distress vocalization (Bowlby, 1982)—provides evidence that mothers with secure attachment representations exhibit more adaptive responding to infant distress across multiple levels of analysis, including autonomic physiological, subjective, and observed emotional responding. However, a predominant focus on mothers in developmental research to the exclusion of fathers has led to a lack of research on how mothers and fathers regulate one another’s responses to infant distress. Thus, this study examines whether mothers’ and fathers’ responding to infant distress in the presence (vs. absence) of their romantic partner varies as a function of their attachment representations, as assessed via self-reported (i.e., Experiences in Close Relationships – Revised; ECR-R; Fraley et al., 2011) and narrative (i.e., Attachment Script Assessment; ASA; Waters & Waters, 2006; Groh & Haydon, 2024) assessments. Method. Participants included 131 romantically-involved parents (mothers = 78.6% White/Not Hispanic; fathers = 74.8% White/Not Hispanic) of a 6-month-old infant. Parents completed the ASA, and narratives were rated for SBSK (i.e., attachment problem resolved), deactivation (i.e., attachment problem dismissed), hyperactivation (i.e., attachment problem amplified), and anomalous content (i.e., attachment problem creates fear/disorientation). Parents also completed self-reports of attachment avoidance and anxiety on the ECR-R. Next, parents’ heart rate and electrodermal activity were physiologically monitored during a 4-minute resting period and while listening to infant crying (2 min). Parents self-reported on their current experience of different emotions following the rest period and infant crying. Half of families completed this procedure alone and the other half while holding their partner’s hand. Reactivity scores from baseline were created to assess respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA) withdrawal, electrodermal reactivity, and self-reported positive and negative emotional reactivity. Results. Actor-partner interdependence models (APIM) revealed that the association between lower actor SBSK and heightened electrodermal reactivity was significant in the separate, but not together, condition (Figure 1a). Similarly, greater actor avoidance was associated with dampened electrodermal reactivity in the together, but not separate, condition (Figure 1b). These findings suggest that partner presence might buffer insecure, in particular avoidant, parents’ electrodermal reactivity to infant distress. In contrast, actor anxiety was associated with greater RSA withdrawal in the together, but not separate, condition (Figure 1c), suggesting that partner presence contributed to greater reliance on internal resources for self-regulation for anxious parents. A partner effect also emerged such that greater partner deactivation was associated with heightened electrodermal reactivity during the together, but not separate, condition, suggesting that deactivating partner presence heightened autonomic arousal to infant distress (Figure 1d). Discussion. Findings indicate that the contribution of parents’ attachment to their multi-level responding to infant distress differed according to whether their romantic partner was present versus absent. Thus, findings demonstrate the important role that partner presence plays in parents’ responding to infant distress, signaling the need to consider not only fathers, but also the broader family system, in research on parental responding to infant distress.

Paper #3
Maternal Secure Base Script Knowledge Predicts Changes in Children’s Dysregulation During Early Childhood
Author information	Role
Lee Raby, University of Utah, United States	Presenting author
Bailey Speck, University of Utah, United States	Non-presenting author
Jennifer Isenhour, University of Utah, United States	Non-presenting author
Elisabeth Conradt, University of Utah, United States	Non-presenting author
Sheila Crowell, University of Utah, United States	Non-presenting author
Abstract
According to attachment theory, parents’ mental representations of attachment shape how they interact with their children, which in turn influences children’s socioemotional development (Bowlby, 1988; Main et al., 1985). Most of the research on this topic has focused on predicting attachment security among young children (Verhage et al., 2016). As a result, it is unclear whether parents’ attachment representations have implications for other child outcomes. The goal of this study was to examine whether the security of mothers’ attachment representations predict changes in their children’s socioemotional functioning during early childhood. We also explored whether these intergenerational associations were due to maternal sensitivity. The study included 85 mothers and their children (51% female, 49% male). Mothers’ median age was 31 years, and the median household income was $50,000-$79,999. Fifty-one percent of mothers were White/non-Hispanic, 26% were Hispanic, and 23% were a different race/ethnicity. When children were 18 months old, mothers’ attachment representations were assessed using the Attachment Script Assessment (Waters & Waters, 2006). Mothers told four narratives about fictional parent-child and adult romantic relationships using a set of outlines, and their narratives were rated for the degree to which they demonstrated knowledge of the secure base script (Waters & Roisman, 2019). Maternal sensitivity was rated based on observations of mothers playing for 10 minutes with their 18-month-old children. Mothers reported on their toddlers’ socioemotional functioning using the Infant Toddler Social Emotional Assessment (Carter et al., 2003) when children were 18 and 36 months old. This 166-item questionnaire provided information about children’s internalizing and externalizing behavior problems, behavioral dysregulation, and socioemotional competence. The results of a repeated measures ANOVA indicated that maternal secure base script knowledge was associated with changes in young children’s behavioral dysregulation between 18 to 36 months, F(1,73) = 4.48, p = .038. As shown in Figure 1, dysregulation increased between 18 and 36 months among young children whose mothers had low knowledge of the secure base script, but not for children whose mothers had high secure base script knowledge. Secure base script knowledge was not a significant predictor of changes in young children’s externalizing or internalizing behavior problems or their socioemotional competence. Follow-up analyses were conducted to test whether maternal sensitivity mediated the association between secure base script knowledge and children’s dysregulation. As expected, secure base script knowledge was positively associated with maternal sensitivity (r = .35, p = .002). However, maternal sensitivity was not significantly associated with changes in children’s dysregulation, and maternal secure base script knowledge continued to predict changes in children’s dysregulation when maternal sensitivity was included in the model. The present findings indicate that mothers’ attachment representations predict young children’s socioemotional outcomes other than attachment. Children whose mothers did not have secure representations of attachment relationships exhibited increases in behavioral dysregulation during early childhood. This longitudinal effect was not attributed to mothers’ sensitivity during a free-play interaction, but other dimensions of parental behavior and/or parental behavior observed in other contexts may mediate the effects of parents’ attachment representations for their young children’s socioemotional development.

Paper #4
Coordination of Parent and Adolescent Attachment Across Time
Author information	Role
Keely A. Dugan, University of Missouri, United States	Presenting author
R. Chris Fraley, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, United States	Non-presenting author
Jason D. Jones, Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine, United States	Non-presenting author
Jessica A. Stern, Pomona College, United States	Non-presenting author
Phillip R. Shaver, University of California, Davis, United States	Non-presenting author
Carl W. Lejuez, Stony Brook University, United States	Non-presenting author
Jude Cassidy, University of Maryland, United States	Non-presenting author
Abstract
Adolescence is a period of rapid social changes that may have important implications for the ways adolescents think, feel, and behave in their close relationships—that is, their attachment styles (Mikulincer & Shaver, 2016). According to family systems theory (Bowen, 1978), changes in adolescents’ attachment-related experiences have the potential to spread throughout the family system, leading to coordinated changes in parents’ and adolescents’ attachment styles over time. Cross-sectional research has provided some initial support for the idea that parents’ and adolescents’ attachment styles are interconnected (e.g., Besser & Priel, 2005; Obegi et al., 2004; Roelofs et al., 2008). However, to the best of our knowledge, no research has examined the extent of coordination among changes in adolescents’ attachment styles and changes in their parents’ attachment styles. The present study examined the dynamic relationships between parents’ and adolescents’ attachment styles over time. We analyzed data from 205 adolescents (mean age T1 = 14.0, SD = 0.9; 44% female, 56% male; 51% White, 33% African American, 3% Hispanic/Latino, 1% Asian American, 12% another race/ethnicity) and their parents (196 mothers, 105 fathers), who completed self-report measures of their general attachment styles annually for five years (from age 14 to 18 years). Specifically, at each wave, parents completed the Experiences in Close Relationships scale (ECR; Brennan et al., 1998), and adolescents completed the 12-item short form of the ECR (Wei et al., 2007). These measures assess individual differences in attachment along two dimensions: Attachment anxiety captures the extent to which people worry about attachment-related concerns (e.g., fear rejection or abandonment), and attachment avoidance captures the extent to which people feel uncomfortable opening up to others and depending on others for support. Using multivariate latent growth curve models (see Figure 1), we examined the extent of coordination among adolescents’ and parents’ initial levels of attachment security, long-term growth in security, and short-term fluctuations in security. As a second aim, we also examined the extent of coordination among mothers’ and fathers’ attachment styles across time. The results revealed a push and pull dynamic between mothers’ and adolescents’ long-term trajectories of attachment security. Mothers who reported higher initial levels of attachment anxiety tended to have adolescent children who reported higher levels of avoidance at the beginning of adolescence. Furthermore, mothers who increased in attachment anxiety as their children navigated the teenage years—who tried to hold on too tightly to their loved ones—tended to have adolescent children who became increasingly closed off and avoidant. Together, these findings point towards varying degrees of tension in adolescents’ and mothers’ renegotiation of their attachment-caregiving relationship (Allen & Tan, 2016). Supporting a key tenet of family systems theory—that different family subsystems can operate in different ways (Minuchin, 1985)—the parent-parent subsystem demonstrated a different dynamic: Mothers and fathers mirrored each other’s patterns of attachment security across the study period, reporting similar initial levels of attachment avoidance and synchronized short-term fluctuations in attachment anxiety and avoidance across time. These findings suggest that mothers and fathers remain highly in tune with one another’s current attachment-related signals as their children navigate adolescence.

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