Maternal and Paternal Attachment Style and Chaos as Risk Factors for Parenting Behavior

Abstract

Objective and Background Household chaos and insecure parental attachment styles are associated with lower quality parenting behaviors. However, there is a paucity of evidence regarding fathers' parenting behaviors, and no studies examine whether chaotic home environments moderate the attachment style–parenting behavior relationship. Method Using data from both mothers and fathers of 742 children (40.5% African American) living in rural, low‐resource communities, the current study examined the individual and joint effects of self‐reported adult attachment style and two domains of household chaos on observed maternal and paternal parenting behaviors during structured play with their 58‐month‐old child (49.6% female). Results Multivariate models revealed that even after controlling for confounders, attachment insecurity predicted lower quality parenting behavior for mothers and fathers. Further, for both mothers and fathers, the disorganized domain of household chaos, representing environments high in noise, clutter, and disorder, predicted less sensitive and more intrusive parenting behavior. Finally, for mothers with dismissive attachment styles, high levels of disorganization appeared to exacerbate caregiving difficulties; this moderating relationship was not evident for fathers. Conclusion These findings suggest that the stress of a chronically disorganized family environment may influence the expression of mothers' insecure tendencies in the context of parenting, thereby intensifying less sensitive and more intrusive parenting behaviors. Implications These findings suggest that the stress of a chronically disorganized family environment may impact the expression of mothers' insecure tendencies in the context of parenting, thereby intensifying less sensitive and more intrusive parenting behaviors.

Buffering and spillover of adult attachment insecurity in couple and family relationships

“…quality and low trust 132,133 . Similar couple-family spillover processes likely explain why individuals high in romantic attachment anxiety or avoidance experience poor family functioning, including less family cohesion and greater family chaos 32,84,86,134,135 . The detrimental parenting and family outcomes that arise when one parent or both parents are high in romantic insecurity are all established risk factors for poor child security and adjustment, and they likely accumulate over time to amplify the risk of poor couple, family and child well-being 113,114,121,125,126,136,137 .…”

Household chaos as a moderator of the link between parents’ inhibitory control and parenting quality.

“…Negative regard and intrusiveness scores were averaged to create the composite harsh-intrusive parenting variable (r mother = .53, p < .0001; r father = .52, p < .0001). This variable has been computed and used in other investigations (see Wagner et al, 2018;Zvara et al, 2014Zvara et al, , 2020. Higher scores on the harsh-intrusiveness variable indicate greater negative affect (i.e., negative and hostile behaviors directed toward the child) and behaviors that are parent-focused, controlling, and harsh.…”

The Relationship between Fathers Parenting Behavior and Adult Attachment

“…However, besides their similarities, it is not sufficient to conclude that adult and early attachment are the same concepts. The adult attachment style is not only related to one's physical and mental health but also their interpersonal relationships [4].…”

“…It is also known that insecure parent-adult attachment leads to decreased parenting quality [4]. The secure adult attachment tends to support parents to have a positive, supportive, warming attitude while parenting their children.…”

“…However, how the household chaos may influence fathers and mothers with different types of adult attachment and then increase the negative parenting behaviors remains unclear. Zvara et al conducted research in 2020 that recruited 742 children and their parents who lived in low-resource rural regions [4]. To examine the connection between father and mother's adult attachment, home disorder, and parenting style, researchers employed self-report adult attachment style using AAS, evaluated household chaos, and assessed controlled play between parent and children.…”