Attachment, perceptions of care and caregiving to romantic partners and friends

Abstract

Across two studies, we examined the extent to which adults' caregiving responses reflect the quality of care received from their attachment figures. Study 1 showed that romantic caregiving reflected the quality of perceived parental and partner care. Moreover, perceived partner care mediated the link between parental care and romantic caregiving, suggesting that one's parental care affects the type of care one seeks or receives from partners, which in turn affects one's romantic caregiving. This describes a possible process for the intergenerational transmission of caregiving styles. Romantic attachment anxiety was associated with compulsive caregiving to partners. Study 2 examined causal mechanisms by priming a representation of perceived peer care and examining its effect on caregiving responses. As hypothesized, caregiving responses reflected the quality of primed peer care and were associated with attachment orientation. Findings provide evidence that individuals mentally represent the thoughts, feelings and behaviours of the care‐seeker and the caregiver during interactions and both influence one's caregiving to partners and friends. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Evidence for a Bifactor Structure of the Caregiving Questionnaire with Individuals Involved in Different and Same-Sex Couple Relationships

“…Furthermore, the CQ specific factors tended to correlate with constructs from attachment theory in the expected directions, providing additional data on the validity of this instrument. As anticipated, attachment anxiety was more strongly associated with controlling and compulsive caregiving, while attachment avoidance was more strongly connected with low proximity and sensitivity, findings that are in line with previous evidence [ 15 , 16 , 18 , 22 ]. These results can represent the tendency to become overly involved in the case of people with higher attachment anxiety, even though they experience concern for their partner´s welfare [ 7 ].…”

“…Among those with high levels of attachment anxiety, hyperactivation of the care system is observed, which leads them to be intrusive and hyper-vigilant, assuming a leading role in solving problems, or displaying exaggerated reactions that control or limit the partner’s actions. Accordingly, it has been reported that people with greater attachment anxiety, although seeking intimacy with others, tend to provide ineffective care, given that the motivation for caregiving would respond more to self-centered needs: either to reduce the distress generated by the partner’s vulnerability, or the need to be recognized and validated [ 11 , 15 , 16 ].…”

“…The CQ scale has been widely used in previous studies [ 15 , 16 , 18 , 21 , 22 , 23 , 24 , 25 ], with heterosexual couples who were dating [ 18 ], married young couples [ 23 , 24 ], and older couples [ 16 ]. Studies in the field have shown that caregiving dimensions are not correlated with age or relationship length [ 21 ], which is in line with the Bowlby conceptualization of caregiving as a universal system [ 3 ].…”

“…While in the original study, Kunce and Shaver [ 17 ] report moderate correlations between the dimensions, Bouaziz et al [ 21 ] present evidence that supports an orthogonal factorial structure. Incidentally, several studies show the independence of the compulsive caregiving dimension [ 33 ], even to the point of not considering it as part of the caregiving construct or treating it separately [ 16 , 34 , 35 ]. Added to this is the fact that although the comparison between groups is a frequent practice in research [e.g., 15], there is little evidence about the equivalence of the CQ scale based on sex and type of romantic relationship (different and same-sex), which is an essential requirement for the comparability of measurements [ 36 ].…”

Why Can’t I Resist Those “Puppy Dog” (or “Kitty Cat”) Eyes? A Study of Owner Attachment and Factors Associated with Pet Obesity

“…Although secure individuals are able to accurately identify distress and provide the support needed, highly anxious and avoidant individuals have greater difficulty with caregiving [ 12 ]. Specifically, highly anxious individuals attempt to prove their worth when providing care [ 14 ], resulting in more aversive and less effective caregiving because their responses are more self-focused [ 15 , 16 , 17 , 18 ]. Highly avoidant individuals are generally poor caregivers [ 18 , 19 ] because they are lower in prosocial motivation and lower in emotional intimacy with their partner [ 12 ], which is necessary for more targeted and appropriate support-giving.…”