Recalled parental bonding interacts with oxytocin receptor gene polymorphism in modulating anxiety and avoidance in adult relationships

Abstract

<jats:title>ABSTRACT</jats:title><jats:p>Early interactions with parents affect subsequent social experience throughout the course of a lifetime, as a repeated and prolonged perception of different levels of care, independence or control influences the modulation of emotional regulatory processes. As many factors play a role in shaping the expectations and features of social interaction, in this study we consider the influence of reported parental bonding and allelic variation of oxytocin receptor gene polymorphism (rs53576) over relationship levels of experienced anxiety and avoidance in 309 young adults belonging to two different cultural contexts, namely Italy and Singapore. Results highlight a major effect of maternal characteristics, care and overprotection, with differences between the two cultural groups. Additionally, the interaction between rs53576 and maternal overprotection suggest different environmental susceptibility in the Italian sample and the Singaporean one. Implication in clinical work and future steps are described in the conclusion.</jats:p>

Serotonin Transporter Gene Polymorphisms and Maternal Overprotection Regulate Adult Social Expectations on Close Relationships

“…The present study extends previous knowledge on parent-infant attachment and adult attachment which characterizes social development [55][56][57]. The observed correlations between PBI and ECR-R dimensions almost replicate the attachment patterns reported by previous studies on an Italian sample [20]. These results indicate that the reported scores in parental caregiving are associated with the levels of adult attachment at distinct directionality: the higher the scores in parental (e.g., maternal) overprotection dimension, the higher the scores in anxiety and avoidance dimensions; conversely, the higher the scores in parental care dimensions, the lower the scores in the same ECR-R dimensions.…”

“…The evidence of a linear relationship between the PBI maternal overprotection and the ECR-R subscales meets the starting assumption on the prototype hypothesis, which postulates that the early relationship with the parents represent a shared basis for subsequent social experiences [60], underpinning romantic functioning and believes [61]. In reference to the attachment theory [62], individuals who experienced a negative relationship with the parent (high scores in maternal overprotection) would have shown higher levels in anxiety and avoidance in romantic relationship [20], as witnessed by the heightened scores obtained in the ECR-R dimensions. The current data suggest that a history of adverse maternal bonding may have a long-term impact on the adult attachment status [63].…”

“…As a consequence, less adaptive parenting practices can be the early core of later anxiety and avoidance experienced in social relationships [18,19]. A recent investigation on two different cultural contexts found that maternal overprotection perceived during childhood was associated with increased anxiety in close adult relationships in a Western-representative country [20], while greater reported levels of maternal care were correlated to lower experienced avoidance [20]. A previous study by Riskind and colleagues highlights that increased paternal and low maternal overprotection levels were predictive of a cognitive vulnerability to preoccupation and anxiety [21].…”

Oxytocin Receptor Gene Polymorphisms and Early Parental Bonding Interact in Shaping Instagram Social Behavior

“…In the context of sociability, people with high genetic sensitivity will exhibit a more adaptive social behavior when exposed to a positive environment (i.e., a warm relationship with parents) [ 51 , 52 ]. However, they will display less adaptive social behavior if they go through negative events (i.e., the loss of a parent, child abuse, or maltreatment) [ 53 , 54 ].…”

The relation between Oxytocin Receptor Gene polymorphisms, adult attachment and Instagram sociability: an exploratory analysis

“…Attachment theory has especially been used to understand people's social development from early infancy and childhood to adulthood [11,12]. The quality in the early relationships with parents during infancy and childhood could also affect the adult relationships with peers and the partner [13,14,15,16]. As a matter of fact, people from high-quality marriages (i.e people that show better marital adjustment and higher marital satisfaction) often manifest better physical and mental health than the ones in low-quality marriages [17].…”